By: Betsy Schwarm
Richard Wagner was a grasp of each music and story, which you will notice well-reflected in his work The Flying Dutchman. To study the complete story of the opera, try The Flying Dutchman 101: Characters and Plot. To have a deeper dive into the music and historical past of this opera, try these insights from music historian Betsy Schwarm.
The Origins of The Flying Dutchman
Richard Wagner (1813–1883) didn’t invent the story of the Flying Dutchman. Tales of a doomed crusing ship and its cursed captain are discovered within the legends of quite a few seafaring lands. Actually, Wagner initially set his opera on the coast of Norway by the North Sea as a result of he was influenced by a current expertise of crusing by means of that space throughout a horrendous storm.
Heinrich Heine (1777–1856) tells the final story in his novella From the Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewopski (1831). Luckily, Wagner gave his operatic model a much less unwieldy title! The Flying Dutchman was first staged in Dresden, Germany on January 2, 1843. Wagner, who was serving as the town’s royal music director on the time, each wrote the libretto and performed the efficiency.
The piece tells of a ship captain and his crew, condemned to sail the seas without end till the captain—identified solely because the Dutchman—finds a lady who will probably be trustworthy to him. As Wagner and Heine inform it, such a peerless girl is discovered: Senta. Alas, the Dutchman doubts her guarantees and leaves to renew his infinite voyage. The despairing Senta swears she has been true to him to the very finish, proving that assertion along with her remaining motion.
Showcasing Wagner’s Strengths
The Flying Dutchman was Wagner’s fourth opera, although his earliest that’s nonetheless carried out at this time. When it premiered, the composer was not fairly thirty. His most revolutionary stylistic concepts had been nonetheless many years sooner or later, although his fondness for orchestral richness and lengthy, flowing vocal traces was already in place. Wagner à la The Flying Dutchman is a daring step alongside the street to Wagner à la the Ring Cycle.
Incessantly heard as an orchestral showpiece, the extensively acquainted overture makes this clear. Certainly, nobody is singing, however the melodies are there, particularly the rolling, turbulent themes that completely evoke a storm at sea. Love themes seem that can later reemerge within the opera, and there’s even a jolly sailor’s refrain. That refrain doesn’t belong to the Dutchman’s personal crew, as they don’t have anything about which to be jolly. Nonetheless, it does current an appreciated little bit of verve and excessive spirits in an in any other case darkish and troubled story.
Hearken to the Overture, carried out by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony>>
Highly effective Characters
It’s, nonetheless, the voices that make Wagner’s imaginative and prescient full. In his care, vocal elements present not solely stunning singing and phrases to advance the plot, but in addition insights into the characters. Why do they do what they do, and the way do they really feel about it?
The Dutchman and Senta each have arias reflecting on his plight: cursed to sail the seas unendingly till he can discover a trustworthy girl. The Dutchman is anguished; for him, it’s a deeply private ache. Senta, nonetheless, envisions the everlasting constancy that might redeem him. Musically talking, it prepares us for her actions, simply as his music units the stage for his lack of religion.
Hear from our Dutchman, Olafur Sigurdarson, on what this roles means to him in a Q&A>>
The Flying Dutchman Ensemble
Picture: Opera Colorado/Matt Staver
Nonetheless, the opera shouldn’t be solely involved with the 2 characters round whom the motion revolves. Senta’s father, Daland, additionally has an aria. Tender, relatively than turbulent, it’s extra songlike than can be Wagner’s trademark in future years. He isn’t commanding Senta, however as an alternative cajoling her to simply accept the Dutchman’s request for her as his bride. Inside minutes, the match is made.
Past the central romance, there are the women of the village and the fellows of the crusing ships. In act two’s “Spinning Music,” flowing phrases counsel the rotation of spinning wheels because the younger girls muse upon their loves “out on the seas.” They tease Senta for her attachment to the younger hunter Erik (a trucker in our new manufacturing), who will discover that he can’t compete with the mysterious ship’s captain. The ringing excessive notes of Erik’s act three “Cavatina” aren’t any match for Germanic majesty.
There may be neither majesty nor thriller to the native sailors. These jaunty fellows are all youthful exuberance longing to return to their sweethearts. Having been anticipated within the overture, the Steersman’s refrain turns into much more vibrant with voices. The Dutchman’s crew additionally has a refrain, although yet one more tumultuous than joyous. It was the captain who was cursed, however they’re trapped in the identical turmoil.
Wagner’s Affect
With The Flying Dutchman, Wagner made his first lasting mark on the opera world. Study extra about Wagner’s impression on the historical past of opera>>
He imagined opera as not merely an elaborate vocal show standing upon a narrative, however relatively a drama advised by means of music. Wagner most popular Germanic substance to Italianate sparkle. He by no means fully conquered the opposing view, however definitely made a powerful case for his personal.
