not quite an artistic disaster.....
Not quite an 'artistic disaster'. The design and stage management is interesting and different. The director created a toy theater box setting with exaggerated perspectives and pop-up puppet like characters with stylized movements (mainly side to side). Women turn into dolls with funny make-up, the Bavarian peasants are poked fun at and look like malicious simpletons.
It all comes together well at the end, a pyramid with the Prince at the apex - a very effective idea.
Neither is anything wrong with it musically. Ligendza and Viljakunen, her charming partner in the subrette role are great assets to this production. The four deep voice roles (two extra ones thrown in for the last act) are all strong and resonant. My only objection is the tenor,a very difficult pre Wagnerian role,
I find the voice lacking in strength and range and his acting unimaginative, repetitious. Conducting though excellent, will not reach the heights of
Joseph Keilberth in inspiration and innigkeit. Altogether at least 3 stars.

Weber deserves better. Save your money.
No, this is not "smaltzy music" as described by a previous reviewer. And no, a "folksy," somewhat humorous setting is not what Weber had in mind. Save your money and purchase the DVD with basso Gottlieb Frick. This may have been the only version available for awhile, but listening to a CD only would be preferable. Or if you've already purchased this DVD and in respect to the singers on this rendition, darken the screen and just listen to their fine voices). The slapstick staging (along with whatever adjective you want to use for a perverted rabbit) seems to reflect the producers' idea that the opera cannot stand on its own. So wrong; this is gorgeous music. Wagner called Weber the "Prince of composers" for good reason; and while Euryanthe was saddled with an impossible libretto, Freischutz is a masterpiece and deserves a staging without a misguiding attempt to "improve" on the composer's genius.

Small Town Gemutlichkeit
Staging Der Freischutz as a religious fairy-tale seems to me the only tolerable approach; at least the "small town in the lost forest" of German Romanticism is evoked. Der Freischutz is a period piece, even though an important period piece. In other words, don't try to make too much of it, and don't expect too much except for some charming schmaltzy music. The singing in this production is excellent, the acting not bad, the staging and costuming fitting. I suspect that those reviewers who despise this production want somehow to make Carl Maria von Weber the heir of Mozart and the father of Wagner. He's neither, but he's fun once in a while.

A STAGE DIRECTOR'S MISCONCEPTION
This is just so WRONG! Do yourself a favor; if you really like this opera go and buy the ARTHAUS MUSIC DVD with Gottlob Frick, Arlene Saunders and a wonderful cast and production. The current cast on this DVD can't hold a candle to that near perfect cast and production. Where do they come up with these outrageous concepts. A six foot sexually active bunny - come off it and have some respect for the composer and this beautiful score. AN ARTISTIC DISASTER1

Is This Romantic Opera?
Honestly, were are the Romantic stagings that the music evokes? I was hoping to see a realistic backdrop showing a lush Black Forest, not a silly array of Freudian symbols. I burst out laughing at the big masturbating bunny, which is a reaction that I don't think Weber intended for the mysterious "wolf-glen" scene. With all the attention on period performances you'd think that the people who put this crap on stage would try and follow suite. If the directors have to use a zeitgeist model, why not Goethe? Freud lived almost a century after Weber.