The first act opens with a spirited chorus of villagers, followed by a lively march and a comic song by Kilian, in which he rallies Max upon his bad luck.  The next number is a trio and chorus, with solos for the principals, Max, Kuno, and Caspar ("O diese Sonne, furchtbar steigt sie mir empor").  Max laments his fate, but Kuno encourages him, while Caspar insinuates his evil plot.  The trio is of a sombre cast at the beginning, but by a sudden change the horns and an expressive combination of the chorus give it a cheerful character.  It is once more disturbed, however, by Caspar’s ominous phrases, but at last Kuno and his men cheer up the despondent lover with a brisk hunting-chorus, and the villagers dance off to a lively waltz tempo.  Max is left alone, and the next number is a grand tenor scene.  It opens with a gloomy recitative, which lights up as he thinks of Agatha, and then passes into one of the most tender and delicious of melodies ("Durch die Waelder, durch die Auen"), set to a beautiful accompaniment.  Suddenly the harmony is clouded by the apparition of Zamiel, but as he disappears, Max begins another charming melody ("Jetzt ist wohl ihr Fenster offen"), which is even more beautiful than the first.  As Zamiel reappears the harmony is again darkened; but when despairing Max utters the cry, “Lives there no God!” the wood-demon disappears, and the great song comes to an end.  In this mood Caspar meets him, and seeks to cheer him with an hilarious drinking-song ("Hier im ird’schen Jammerthal"), furious in its energy, and intended to express unhallowed mirth.  The act closes with Caspar’s bass aria of infernal triumph ("Triumph! die Rache, die Rache gelingt"), accompanied by music which is wonderfully weird and shadowy in its suggestions.

The second act opens with a duet ("Schelm! halt fest”) in which Agatha’s fear and anxiety are charmingly contrasted with the lightsome and cheery nature of Annchen, her attendant, and this in turn is followed by a naive and coquettish arietta ("Kommt ein schlanker Bursch gegangen”) sung by the latter.  Annchen departs, and Agatha, opening her window and letting the moonlight flood the room, sings the famous scena and prayer, “Leise, leise, fromme Weise,” beginning, after a few bars of recitative, with a melody full of prayer and hope and tender longings, shaded with vague presentiment.  It is an adagio of exquisite beauty, closing with an ecstatic outburst of rapture ("Alle meine Pulse schlagen”) as she beholds her lover coming.  The melody has already been heard in the overture, but its full joy and splendid sweep are attained only in this scene.  In the next scene we have a trio ("Wie? was?  Entsetzen?”) between Max, Annchen, and Agatha, in which the musical discrimination of character is carried to a fine point; and the act concludes with the incantation music in the Wolf’s Glen, which has never been surpassed in weirdness, mystery, and diablerie, and at times in actual sublimity.  Its real power lies in the instrumentation; not alone in its vivid and picturesque presentation of the melodramatic scene with its hideous surroundings, but in its expressiveness and appositeness to the action and sentiment by the skilful use of motives.