Austrian festival brings back German romantic classic

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2007

SALZBURG, Austria (AFP) — The Austrian arts festival, the Salzburger Festspiele, presented Friday night a revival performance of "Der Freischuetz" (The Marksman), the German romantic classic that set the stage for the works of Wagner.

The lively "premiere", which included naked women at a devil's seance in a forest and freedoms taken with the libretto to get in criticism of the United States as a warmonger, got a mixed reception from the critical crowd in Salzburg, with boos and applause greeting director Falk Richter at the end of the performance.

Artists are expected to take to take avant-garde-like chances at the summer Festspiele, and the Freischuetz, a tale pitting good against evil in dark woods, was updated to have a modern, more urban sheen.

There...