Chapter 11

The overture--The plot--A Leitmotif before Wagner--Berlioz and Agathe's air--The song of the Bridesmaids--Wagner and his dying stepfather--The Teutonism of the opera--Facts from a court record --Folklore of the subject--Holda, Wotan, and the Wild Hint--How magical bullets may be obtained--Wagner's description of the Wolf's Glen--Romanticism and classicism--Weber and Theodor Körner--German opera at Dresden--Composition of "Der Freischütz"--First performances in New York, (footnote).