THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (Der Fliegende Holländer), WWV63: “IN SHORT”

Composed after the resounding success of Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes (WWV 49), The Flying Dutchman (Der Fliegende Holländer, WWV 63) is the fourth opera created by Richard Wagner. It is nowadays perceived as the first of the operas attributed to the composer’s phase of maturity.

If we are to believe his autobiographical writings (and more particularly Mein Leben, where this episode is reported on several pages), the idea of setting the legend of The Flying Dutchman to music would have come to Wagner’s mind while, fleeing the creditors of Riga aboard the Thetis with his wife Minna, the composer made the disastrous North Sea crossing. The fright felt by the travelers during this journey would have made them glimpse in the swell the ghostly shadow of the spectral ship whose history had inspired among other poets Heinrich Heine.

Condemned to wander on the seas for eternity for having, according to legend, defied Satan, the Dutchman is now entitled to sail only once every seven years: on this unique occasion, he must try to conquer the heart of a woman. Only the absolute love of a woman who will vow eternal fidelity to him would free him from the curse.

Taking his inspiration from the fantastic atmosphere dear to the authors of the early XIXth century who like to revel in spectres, legends and crimes of passion, Richard Wagner however adapted his libretto in his own way and wove as early as 1839 the framework of an opera in three acts.

Initially intended to be proposed to the Paris Opera, the libretto of The Flying Dutchman (the literal translation from the German original version) was first written in French during Wagner’s stay in Paris in 1839. From 1840, the composer started composing the score (still on the French text), Léon Pillet, director of the “Académie de Musique” (Opera House), showing quite a certain interest in the subject. But musically, things were more complicated: Wagner made every effort to get his work accepted on the Paris stage. From three acts – in the initial version as thought by Wagner – the work was reworked into an entertainment in a single act, intended to be performed as the first part of a ballet. Despite the efforts made by the composer, the work was still refused… and only his libretto was bought! (Besides, it was set to music by another composer, a French one who was accustomed to the Parisian stage, Pierre-Louis Dietsch).

Called to Dresden in order to supervise the rehearsals of Rienzi at the Royal Theatre of the Court of Saxony, Wagner ended his Parisian sojourn in the spring of 1842, taking with him his sketches of The Flying Dutchman which he could not bring himself to abandon. He finished them quickly during the rehearsals of Rienzi, whose success met with the production on 20 October, 1842, convinced the authorities of the Court of Saxony to stage The Flying Dutchman (while it had up to this point been successively rejected in Leipzig, Berlin, and finally Munich).

Although the work is still largely related to the classic style of the first half of the 19th century (a classical distribution of roles, an overture isolated from the rest of the work, the composition of the orchestra itself, and the cutting of the work into distinct numbers, so as the composition of the melodies still strongly influenced by the tradition of the French and Italian opera), it nevertheless marks a significant break with the usual lyrical tradition, notably by the introduction of leitmotifs: musical phrases identify characters, central concepts and dominant feelings, and these themes presented in the overture to the work are re-exposed and later developed throughout the opera. It is the first appearance of leitmotifs in Wagner’s work, which he will use to build his future operas or lyrical dramas. It is also in The Flying Dutchman that the composer introduced certain themes that are dear to him and which will be recurring in his work: redemption through love, the sacrifice of the female heroine, wandering, the weight of curse.

Performed for the first time on 2 January, 1843 at the Royal Theatre of the Court of Saxony (Semperoper) in Dresden with Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient in the role of Senta, the opera confused critics as well as spectators and only received a critical success. Afterwards, however, the work rapidly established itself among Richard Wagner’s most performed works.

Given nowadays in the version initially desired by the composer, that is to say in its version in three acts continuing one after the other and without interruption during approximately 135 minutes, The Flying Dutchman was the last work to be admitted to the repertoire of the Bayreuth Festival in 1901 (Felix Mottl was conducting). It has since been regularly performed in the same way as Tristan and Isolde and The Ring of the Nibelung.

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