„Standby: Go!“

In the pre-show, we see Agathe’s grave being dug with a pickaxe. From behind the stage, only the stuntman’s feet are visible through a trapdoor, as he hammers away at a slab of wood and polystyrene foam. Occasionally a member of the backstage crew hands him some water to drink – it’s hard, energy-sapping work, thwacking the same spot with a pickaxe over and over again. A few minutes later, the dead Agathe in her coffin is lowered by ropes through the same trapdoor. A stuntwoman is playing her double. Briefly she holds her hands over her face protectively as her colleagues throw the ropes down onto the coffin. Under the stage, she climbs out of the casket and smiles at the camera. 

The hustle and bustle in the backstage area is now over for the time being – more or less everybody is out on stage. It still isn’t quiet, though, because of the many speakers which relay the Freischütz music loud and clear. After all, everybody backstage needs to know what point they are at in the performance. In every corner there are monitors, too, thanks to which they can follow the action on stage and watch the conductor in the Festspielhaus, to ensure that nobody misses their cue.

Starry halos ‒ on!
A short time later, eight stunt women in flesh-coloured body costumes with thousands of glittering stones stuck on begin their warm-up. They are getting ready for the dream sequence in Ännchen’s aria. Shortly before they make their magical entrance, they switch on the halo of star-shaped lights they all wear on their heads, then line up in pairs in the water and wait for the stunt supervisor’s command: “Standby… Go!” The stunt women breathe in deep and dive down. All that the audience sees are the enchanting mermaids surfacing elegantly in the lagoon. The moment the Ännchen aria ends, the mermaids disappear from view, head backstage by the same route, and hurry to their dressing rooms where, as quick as a flash, they are transformed into gruesome water corpses. 

The stunt team – courtesy of Wired Aerial Theatre – is deployed at many points in the opera, coming on at the start as poor villagers, then as mermaids, water corpses, bridesmaids, and at the end as villagers again. The frequent changes are a challenge for the wardrobe and makeup department. Not least because most of the costumes are dripping wet after they’ve been worn.

Push button controlled fire
During the scene in the Wolf’s Ravine, the technical crew are busy in the control booth, a small room erected underneath the snowy hill at the back of the set. From there they make the serpent move, the fire burn and the church tower collapse, operating the stage machinery by just pressing a button. Meanwhile Agathe and Ännchen are getting ready for their entrance. To get from the rear onto the stage without being seen, they don black, hooded cloaks that completely envelop them. An old, simple trick that works as well as ever, allowing them to appear out of nowhere on Agathe’s roof after the Wolf’s Ravine scene. In other cases, the technicians are given costumes so they can move about on stage inconspicuously. Disguised in top hand and woollen coat, the stagehand who lights Kaspar’s torch goes unnoticed among the chorus members.

Stuffed stag props
Samiel, the devil, only makes brief appearances backstage. The standard procedure with him is that he sticks out his tongue and has black theatre blood dribbled onto it. Apart from that his costume changes are limited to having a cloak thrown round his shoulders, devil’s horns set upon his head, and also a bridesmaid’s garland. After Samiel has said his line, “I sense the finale is approaching – time for our longed-for chorus of foresters”, he returns to the backstage area and joins a stunt woman in a boisterous dance to the jaunty Chorus of Foresters, which is played here by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Cast and crew know they’re on the home straight and the mood backstage is palpably positive. 

On stage there’s a lot happening again – the Bregenz Festival Chorus has marched on carrying  dead stags (stuffed props), stunt performers have pushed Prince Ottokar’s magnificent sleigh onto an ice floe, and the bridesmaids are dancing and giggling still.

Before the final scene, everything has got to be done fast. Samiel is dripping wet after disappearing into the water in front of the church tower. Once he emerges from a subterranean passage to the backstage area, he is immediately surrounded by five people. A stuntman checks his harness – it has to hold later when he stands on top of the serpent again. Three women from the wardrobe department help him into a voluminous, XXL hermit’s cloak, while a sound technician uses compressed air from a spray can to dry his wet microphone so that it works without fail when he next goes on stage. A quick test: “Samiel, hello? Testing, one, two, three. Samiel, Samiel, do you hear me?”

Everything is working fine, and a small column starts to move, ascending a wooden staircase as it heads for the hill. Now all that’s missing is the hermit’s mask for the devil’s last grand entrance. The stage manager’s command is heard: “Standby… Go!”

(ec/bk)