Here is something I got this Memorial Day on discount at $4.80. I bought it to celebrate this years new season at the Houston Grand Opera and its return to the Wortham Center after last year’s Harvey damage. The first opera of the season is this one. Normally, I don’t like to know much about the music or story before I see a work. However, I decided to go against my norm and listen to this album before seeing the show. Pretty much sped thru writing this post so if I missed a fact, let me know. Spelling on the other hand is what it is. NOTE***I did not realize this until after I wrote this post and read an article in Houstonia magazine that pointed this out, but it is quite ironic and also accidental that the first opera at the Wortham after coming back from major storm damage would be about a giant storm at sea.
The Flying Dutchman is the first opera from the middle or romantic period from Richard Wagner. Performed in 1843, it came fresh off the heels of Renzi, Wagner’s first operatic success. It was a huge departure from its predecessor, however. Wagner, himself, commented that no other composer he knew of made such a dramatic shift between works. It contains his early use of leitmotifs as well as other poetic conventions that would become staple of his later/ mature period.
From what I read and can comprehend, it was not an immediate success. However, it was the start of a bold new wave of opera. It is also the earliest work included in the Bayreuth Cannon, which are works performed at the annual Wagner festival in the German town of the same name.
To put some back story to this, Wagner, who became the music director at the opera house in Riga in 1837, amassed large debts and was forced to flee with his tempestuous wife two years later. With his passport seized , Wagner found a ship that would take him to London. However, stormy weather turned the eight day trip into three weeks. The experience , which included hunkering down in Norway for a spell, influenced Wagner. He was also influenced by the writings of Henirich Heine as well as folk lore. It was during the writing of this, that Wagner found himself extremely poor and living on handouts.
It was already pretty well a departure from both Wagner’s earlier works as well as operatic convention, but , originally Wagner envisioned this work to be performed in one act. Bowing to popular convention, he split it into three. The story revolves around a cursed Dutch captain who is forced to sail the seas, appearing on land every seven years to search for the true love which can break the spell, Senta, a woman who is in love with a cursed, stranger she has never met, and her Norwegian father, Daland, who quickly pimps out his daughter when he sees the Dutchman’s gold (just a side note, between the Dutchman and the Steerman, I could not stop thinking about Always Sunny In Philadelphia). How does it end? Pretty quickly in my opinion, but I am not going to give it away. You can get a quick synopsis in the video below. Pretty good little synopsis. Again, not spoil it but the narrator does point out that while it is an opera about sacrifice and redemption, it is the men who need all the redemption while the women who do all the sacrificing.
This performance, based on the original 1843 Dresden version features the New Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer. Klemperer (1885-1973) was a Jewish-German conductor who fled to the US in 1933 and returned to Europe after the war. So kind of a counterweight to the antisemitic writings Wagner would later produce that leave me with a sense of guilt every time I post his work.
The role of the Dutchman was performed by still alive Theo Adam. The great and also still alive, Anja Silja sung Senta and Martto Talvela handled the role of Daland. Ernst Kozub, Annelies Burmeister and Gerhard Unger performed the roles of Erik, Mary, and the Steerman respectively. The choral work was handled by the BBC Chorus under Peter Gelhorn. For a sense of completion, the Orchestra was led by Desamond Bradley. This was released in 1968 on Angel Records.
For samples, I went with the overture which presents the leitmotifs of the Dutchman, Senta, and the stormy ocean. I also decided to go with a musical number from each act as they seem to highlight different skills. From Act I we have a piece between the Dutchman and Daland, whereas the cursed captain can not believe his luck at the chance of hooking up with Daland’s daughter to break his curses. The two prepare to disembark to meet Senta while the crew prepares to sit out the storm.
The piece from the Act II is Senta’s Ballad where she sings about the cursed sailor she longs for not knowing that he is on his way to her house. The final selection, from Act III features the choruses, with the Norwegian Sailors, their cursed Dutch counterparts and the girls who brought them food and water. I thought this piece has really good choral parts , by the way.
Overall, I liked it. It was pretty short in terms of operas and moved along quite well. I could definitely see it in one act. I thought the music was great and kind of a precursor to Wagner’s later works. Kind of excited to see this now. Of course by the way I am banging out these posts. you probably will not hear about me seeing this until January. Satisfactory.