Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner
Director: Annabel Arden
Conductor: Garry Walker
Reviewer: Richard Hall
Wagner’s grand opera is based on the Dutch legend of the ghost ship, The Flying Dutchman. For several centuries, the ancient myth has provided a rich source of material for novels, films, and TV adaptations. It has even featured as a character in the popular children’s TV show SpongeBob Square Pants. The Flying Dutchman is one of Wagner’s earliest mature music dramas for which he wrote not only the music but also the libretto. It features a thrilling and vibrant score driven by a taut dramatic narrative. In this bold production, the director/designer team of Annabel Arden and Joanna Parker turn the story of a mysterious mariner, damned to sail his boat for eternity into a contemporary morality story about money, power, and bureaucracy.
Arden and Parker choose to stage the opera as an allegory for modern times turning the eponymous Flying Dutchman and his curse as a metaphor for highlighting the plight of asylum seekers and the displaced. The overture is accompanied by stark footage of dark grey unremitting seas and the floating bodies of those who have died at sea attempting to seek asylum. Their detritus litters the stage throughout and is also suspended in large fishing nets. With each act beginning with recorded testimony from asylum seekers this is a production keen to explore social and political themes, sometimes this approach hits the mark, but often the execution is muddled and confused. The opera begins not on board a ship but in a Government department where the character of Daland, usually played as a sea captain is instead the Home Secretary navigating a storm of immigration, steering, “the ship of state” to safety. This is a neat idea but after a few minutes becomes tiresome and one soon longs for it be played as intended on a ship with a main deck, a mast, and a full set of mariners. Parker’s set does give some nods to life on board ship, a desk is transformed into the prow of a boat and a bar for a party scene resembles a sail but in the main the setting and design concept do little to deliver Wagner’s epic vision.
Despite the ham-fisted directorial approach, the four principals are unaffected by the production’s limitations and succeed in giving outstanding performances. Robert Hayward as the titular Dutchman is excellent, his performance is imbued with sensitivity and great emotional depth. His rendition of the first Act area ‘Die Frist ist um’ (The Time has Come), when the Dutchman conveys an urgent desire to find an angel to rescue him is compelling, vital, and harrowing. As his redeeming angel, come rescuer Senta, Layla Claire is stunning, she has the look of a sultry goddess, sings exquisitely, especially in her second act ballad, and acts the role brilliantly. Clive Bayley as Daland and Edgaras Montvidas as Senta’s spurned lover provide steadfast support. Bayley is impressive, managing to find moments of light and shade amongst the overriding monochrome, gloom, and darkness.
As always Opera North’s orchestra and chorus are in fine form under the confident and measured direction of conductor Garry Walker. Although the production’s design and concept is uneven, all the artists rise to the occasion to provide an evening of exhilarating musical delights that displays Opera North at its finest.
Sung in German, The Flying Dutchman is on tour until 28 March 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Tempestuous
