Approximate Running Times: Doors - 5:30pm Start - 6:00pm The music of this first German romantic opera is irresistible. Its origins lie in a folk tradition concerning a dark and atmospheric tale of a young forester who, unknowingly, enters into a pact with the Devil in a trial required to earn his beloved's hand in marriage. Beneath the supernatural drama lie enduring themes of fate and free will, temptation and moral weakness, and the tension between the natural and supernatural, all set against the brooding landscape of the German forest. .