I recently stumbled across a second hand Bluray of this movie opera.

I had no idea that this had been made. After a bit of research, I found out that it seems to have totally failed at the box office.

After having seen it, I wonder why. Maybe 2010 was a bad time for this kind of experiment.

Anyway, this is so far the most amazing movie opera I have seen.

You need to know about opera history to really appreciate what they did: "Der Freischütz" (or as it is called here by the original title Hunter's Bride - yes, producers changed the names already back then) is what the perfect horror-romance B-Movie would be in today's cinema. Its influence on romantic opera is immense.

The story is as B-Movie horror as it gets: Max is a run down war veteran with PTSD. To marry his sweetheart Agathe (she is still in love with him), he has to win her family by showing off as a good marksman, as family tradition demands.

Unfortunately, because of his PTSD he can't shoot anymore.

He's approached by creepy guy Kaspar, who is a demon worshipper and can create magic bullets. He promises to make 7 bullets with him. Little does Max know that Kaspar has some beef with him because he also had a crush on Max's bride.

So they go into a creepy canyon to summon the demon Samiel and make those bullets.

Kaspar already has some debt to pay to the demon. He promises him the bride. So the 7th bullet will hit Agathe when it's fired... Classic horror thriller stuff.

After this opera's success, many more opera composers turned towards horror and fantasy material. Marschner's "Der Vampyr" is an opera version of the first modern vampire story by Polidori. Richard Wagner evokes zombie pirates in The Flying Dutchman (yeah, the one from Pirates of the Carribean), and later, after some history drama, goes on to write the first epic fantasy tetralogy about a dwarf who crafts a magic ring to bind them all, then curses it as it's taken from him by the gods. The ring corrupts everyone who has it. Over four operas (the first one is the shorter "prequel") he manages to create a world of power and deceit among gods, demigods, dwarves, giants, dragons, and mortals with lots of good dialogue and action scenes.

It was the LOTR of that time. Dwarf chases after cursed ring...

Then cinema came, and everything was rolled up again, in silent movie, and then again in B&W talkies, and then again in color...

Now opera should return to the cinema, and I think Jens Neubert was cursed to be too early.

It is an awesome effort, for sure.

Neubert uses original locations and has an eye for extreme detail and realism.

The movie is therefore sometimes pretty gory and gruesome. But it's in the opera, and developed all logically.

Horror fans will be pleased.

The cast and orchestra are recorded in a way that resembles more of a movie score, which is perfect, because now one can feel how creepy the soundtrack in the canyon scene really is.

The whole acting is surprisingly good, because many singers just can't act properly.

The cinematic way also deepens the characters.

One little flaw: there's some weird CGI effects used in the canyon scene, that could have been done better, or maybe different.

But then again - it looks exactly like good independent horror of that time, cinematography included.

I didn't mind it too much. I was actually surprised that they went through so much work for that scene to make it really look like a horror movie of the demon worshipping type.

Not a flaw in itself, but I would have preferred them to work with a historically informed orchestra like Anima Eterna. The sound would have been even more creepy and the singers wouldn't have had to strain their voices as much.

Unfortunately, after the commercial fail of this great movie, I guess there was no other attempt at an opera movie.

But now is the time - young people are more interested in this stuff, after having been confronted with it through influencers of different kinds.

Tons of operas are waiting.

How about The Flying Dutchman, The Vampyre, or even a LOTR style Ring Cycle?

Romantic opera is full of interesting stuff that works like modern movies.

And the soundtracks are always amazing.