Der Fliegende Holländer

In the roiling waves of a storm-tossed sea, a dark ship appears on the horizon. The wind whips its blood-red sails, and the driving rain lashes its tall black mast. On the deck stands a pale captain, doomed to roam the seas forever … or until the day love sets him free. When the composer Richard Wagner first read the story of the Flying Dutchman, he found in its titular captain a kindred spirit. Trapped in a tempestuous marriage, perpetually on the run from moneylenders, and desperately searching for an audience for his art, Wagner identified strongly with the captain’s longing for love, stability, and a place to call home. Yet there was another figure in the story who embodied Wagner’s struggles even more powerfully: Senta, a young woman so obsessed with a portrait of the Flying Dutchman that she literally leaps into its haunted world. For Wagner was also poised to leap into a new narrative realm, and Der Fliegende Holländer marks the first of his operas to employ a set of dramatic principles that he would spend a lifetime developing.

Wagner hoped audiences would be drawn into his operatic art just like Senta is drawn into the Dutchman’s portrait, and the idea that a story or image can completely consume the viewer lies at the very heart of the Met’s new production. Harnessing the Met’s famous proscenium arch, director François Girard and his set designer, the painter John Macfarlane, have built a golden frame around the Met’s stage, turning the performance itself into a painting that will captivate the viewer just as the Dutchman’s portrait captivates Senta.

In honor of both Wagner’s vision and Girard’s conception, this guide presents Der Fliegende Holländer as an opera about the narrative power of music, images, and poetry. The materials on the following pages include an introduction to Wagner’s theories about opera and drama, a series of excerpts from Wagner’s own writings, and classroom activities that will bring Der Fliegende Holländer’s music and story to life. By delving into the opera’s music, drama, and design, this guide will forge interdisciplinary classroom connections, inspire critical thinking, and help students explore not only Wagner’s riveting opera but also the profound impact that storytelling can have on both our world and ourselves.

Der Fliegende Holländer

An opera in three acts, sung in German
Music and libretto by Richard Wagner
Based on the novel From the Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewopski by Heinrich Heine
First performed January 2, 1843
at the Court Opera, Dresden, Germany

Valery Gergiev, Conductor

François Girard, Production
John Macfarlane, Set Designer
Moritz Junge, Costume Designer
David Finn, Lighting Designer
Peter Flaherty, Projection Designer
Carolyn Choa, Choreographer
Serge Lamothe, Dramaturg

A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, Dutch National Opera, the Abu Dhabi Festival, and the Quebec Opera

Production a gift of Veronica Atkins

Sir Bryn Terfel
THE DUTCHMAN

Anja Kampe
SENTA

Franz-Josef Selig
DALAND

Sergey Skorokhodov
ERIK

Mihoko Fujimura
MARY

David Portillo
THE STEERSMAN

This guide is intended to cultivate students’ interest in Der Fliegende Holländer, whether or not they have any prior acquaintance with opera and the performing arts. It includes activities for students with a wide range of musical backgrounds and seeks to encourage them to think about opera—and the performing arts as a whole—as a medium of both entertainment and creative expression.

In particular, this guide will offer in-depth introductions to:

• Der Fliegende Holländer’s depiction of different storytelling techniques, including images, spoken words, and songs
• Wagner’s ideas about drama, music, poetry, and stagecraft, and his efforts to create a “total art work” seamlessly combining these elements
• Wagner’s musical language, and how this language is used by opera, film, and theater composers today
• Creative choices made by the artists of the Metropolitan Opera for this production
• The opera as a unified work of art, involving the efforts of composer, librettist, and Met artists