The image we're sharing today lays out a perfect scene for Halloween. 💀
In the Wolf’s Glen from Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (act 2, scene 6), Kaspar stands inside a ring of flaming stones, stoking a brazier beside a skull as he forges “magic” bullets while the demon Samiel materializes in the cave. A snake, bat, owl, and boar lurk outside the circle, and ghostly huntsmen ride across the night sky.
Der Freischütz, often called the first German Romantic opera, premiered in Berlin in 1821. The plot turns on seven enchanted bullets: six obey the shooter, but the seventh belongs to the Devil, setting up the famously eerie Wolf’s Glen scene and the opera’s blend of folklore, forest magic, and moral reckoning.
Image: Witchcraft and magic: a man conducting magic rites, devils and a ghost appearing, and a hunter cowering in terror. Friedrich Kind. Coloured engraving., colored engraving, c. 1830. Wellcome Collection.
