Restlessness and Redemption: Wagner's 'The Flying Dutchman'


For legions of Wagner enthusiasts, that makes no difference. Countless music lovers have found themselves drawn -- raptly -- into the vast musical worlds Wagner created, and eager to return time after time. But there are others who find his sprawling, dramatic canvases -- the ones he called "music dramas" rather than operas -- to be abstruse, forbidding or simply too long to bear.


The Wanderer


The Dutchman's story dates back centuries. He's the ship's captain who tempts fate and is cursed, doomed to wander stormy seas forever. By now, this character's tragic legend, and his evocative name, are pervasive enough to have made it into some unexpected places. In music, for example, there's an atmospheric, 2006 Tory Amos song called "The Flying Dutchman"; a popular 1979 "Flying Dutchman" by Jethro Tull; an obscure heavy metal tune, "Flying Dutch Man," by Kruger; and even an electro-pop version of Wagner's overture, by the Orchestra of the Golden Light.


On World of Opera, host Lisa Simeone presents Wagner's The Flying Dutchman from one of opera's most prestigious venues, London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The stars are bass-baritone Egils Silins in the title role, with soprano Anja Kampe as Senta, the woman who frees the Dutchman from his eternal journey, in a production led by conductor Jeffrey Tate.