In the case of Der Freischütz, the hermit's kindly relationship with Agathe is the only thing that saves her fiancé, Max, at the eleventh hour, from banishment for having dabbled in black magic. But even then, he places Max on a year's probation rather than overturning the sentence entirely. Dealings with the devil were taken very seriously indeed in 1821, when the opera premiered, and it is unlikely anyone broke up at Agathe's line back then.
Another work recently on the New York stage, as well as in a new recording, is Handel's Rinaldo, in which an infidel ruler evokes magic to thwart the success of Christian knights. Rinaldo, Goffredo (leader of the Christian armies), and Goffredo's brother, Eustazio, are on their way to consult with a hermit. The wicked sorceress, Armida, had kidnapped Almirena, Goffredo's daughter and Rinaldo's fiancée, and the men hope the hermit can help them rescue her. Interestingly, considering this is set during the Crusades, this hermit is described as being attuned to the powers of Nature, rather than being presented as a man of God...a secular sorcerer, as it were. During their journey, Rinaldo is lured into the clutches of Armida, and the brothers continue without him to the hermit's remote cave, where of course the sage knows all about Armida's evil doings (one would think he could have intervened to prevent the kidnappings in the first place...O ironic hindsight!). He gives Goffredo and Eustazio magic wands that allow them to pass unscathed through the army of monsters that guard Armida's chambers. (I cannot watch this scene without thinking, of course, of the ending of Bernstein's Candide, in which Dr. Pangloss in one of his many manifestations becomes the old wise man who recommends to Cunegonde and Candide that they go back home and cultivate their garden.)
