Delving into black magic and folk culture, Weber created with Der Freischutz a new aesthetic that was to nourish the imaginative world of a whole generation of composers. Rene Jacobs has gone back to the sources of the initial project and here offers us a completely new reading of the very first German Romantic opera. The prologue initially conceived by the librettist is restored to it's original place, giving due symbolic and structural weight to the character of the Hermit. This is a fascinating rediscovery.