Der Fliegende Hollander [Blu-ray]

This is a great performance and production from 2012 Bayreuth Festival. The singers, the chorus, the orchestra and the conductor are excellent. The interpretation and production is one of the best I've seen in Wagner productions. Wagner used to tell his children: "Always create new things, children". Unfortunately, his conservative wife, Cosima, directed the Bayreuth Festival after Wagner's death in 1883 until her own death in the 1930's like a museum. All productions were exactly the same as was during Wagner's life. Fortunately, Wagner's grandsons, especially Wieland began new productions after the end of the second world war. In recent years, Bayreuth Festival has become the forerunner of new interpretations. Unfortunately, our own Metropolitan Opera has become more and more conservative in its Wagner productions.This does not mean all new interpretations are good. New interpretations are good as long they stay true to Wagner's idea. A few years ago, Wagner's great granddaughter, Katherina directed a production of the Meistersinger of Nurnberg that was way out of line and everything Wagner stood for in his philosophy.Jan Philipp Golger's interpretation is wonderful and right on the target from Wagner's philosophy point of view: renunciation of greed and power in favor of true compassionate love. In this production, the time is 1950's in a capitalist society where everyone is after collecting more money. Senta's father is a factory owner that makes electric fans. He is ready to sell his daughter to the highest bidder. The Flying Dutchman come from the future (in the original story he is coming from the past) when the same capitalist society has reached its highest level where prople have become money making robots without any feelings for love. Only Flying Dutchman is aware of his lost identity and his curse. His curse is the same as Alberich's curse in Wagner's later opera, the Ring of the Nibelung. Alberich curses love in favor of the gold. The Dutchman when reaches the point of his curse in his monolog at the beginning of the opera, burns a dollar bill to show the reason of his curse. When he and Senta fall in love in the second act they both burn money on a pile of fire, again a reference to the Ring. The greatest idea comes at the end of the opera when Senta rescues the Dutchman from his curse through her compassionate love but we see others on the stage now making table lamps (instead of fans) with the statues of Senta and Dutchman hugging each other to show that the capitalist society is moving forward to its grim future. It has not learned its lesson from the Dutchman's fate.

We need 2 categories of stars. Performance? 5 stars. Production? 1 star.I am trying with all my heart to accept modernized stagings of classic operas. Productions designers are doing everything possible to prevent me from loving new stagings. They are probably damaging the future of opera with self-centered, oblique productions.So the 40's version of Faust with Kaufmann won me over to accepting some updates to operatic productions. I could take the Met's new Ring Cycle using the machine though I still prefer the 80's Met production because so much more feeling is conveyed by the singers.I love the Flying Dutchman. It's short, interesting and packed with tunes that make you want to sing along. I wanted to love this production. I just don't. The business guys navigating the world for riches was okay. Acceptable. But anyone new to the opera and watching this production with subtitles on would be terribly confused. I've not seen a helmsman in a business office nor weavers singing of spinning all day on a typewriter.The "party scene" is where I pretty much lost all hope. Forcing the black man to drink---presumably a rape enactment of Africa---was a bit over the top and nothing to do with Wagner's opera. The rape victim turns savage and shoots, with arrows, a few of the guys after his trusty spear becomes a bow when he gets behind the curtain...I guess.This begs the question. Does our Dutchman represent capitalism gone bad? No ship, no crew. Meh. And what's with the weird face paint? And fur coat? Terfel is sweating like he's trapped in a sauna...the coat was a bad idea. Watch closely and you can see a big sweat blob hit the desk as he leans over it. Ew.The ending was funny and merciful. So what exactly was Senta's decision as expressed in this hodgepodge? Maybe she just wanted out of this opera. Can't blame her.Well, the singing is great and I had fun watching it. (I received a Region 0 BluRay DVD by the way)You can't hate anything with singing this good. Kampe by the way sings a beautiful Senta. I would love this performance on CD.Let's get this same cast together and produce a traditional Dutchman for this BluRay generation. Please.

Gran papel de Bryn Terfel, fantástica Anja Kampe!!! La puesta en escena es bastante moderna, es como si todo pasara en una oficina. Eso, para quienes estamos acostumbrados a las puestas en escena más clásicas, hace más complejo y desafiante el aprobar estas propuestas modernas. De todas maneras es una gran propuesta, muy bien cantada!!! Interesante y muy recomendable!!!

There are times when Regie can expose nuances in a piece, which the Composer himself may have missed.There are times when Regie can provide amusement by scurrying off in directions which may be utterly daft, but can be entertaining.Unfortunately, there are also times where Regie gives the impression that it's just trying to save money.This production comes into the third category.Listen to the music - full of salt spray, the wind in your face, the sails straining against the gale, the phantom crew... Exciting and terrifying.Now look at the production - set in a bank. Everyone else has horn rim glasses and pinstripe suits. The Dutchman has a top hat and an Astrakhan coat, which presumably makes him strange and exotic. Eric has a gun and dresses in green. Yep. That's a hunter. Senta steals the gun at the end. Not for her the symbolic sacrifice of jumping into the sea - just another suicide.Pretty dull production, I'm afraid.

Bad stage

Brilliant production, if you are a lover of Wagner then you will not be disappointed with this Blu ray recording

If you want your Flying Dutchman to be full of ships and the sea, spinning wheels and oil paintings of sea captains, you won’t like this. This is no traditional production, but Bayreuth Regietheater at it’s very considerable best. In this production, the idea of the sea is replaced by “Commerce”, and the Dutchman and Daland become travelling businessmen. Daland works for a company selling desk fans; we don’t know the Dutchman’s line of business, but it makes him a lot of money. The first Act is set inside a vast piece of blinking electronic equipment – representing the all-pervasive modern world of Commerce. The second and third Acts are set in the fan factory – instead of spinning, the women are packing fans into boxes. Senta is in the middle of all of this making an abstract sculpture which stands in for the painting of the Dutchman. It all sounds a bit odd, but it really works.Musically, it’s tremendous. Christian Thielemann sometimes adopts relatively slow speeds, but delivers enormous energy and power, with some truly thrilling climaxes. All of the singers are excellent, both in singing and acting. Samuel Youn makes the Dutchman more enigmatic and sinister than normal. Christian Thielemann says in his interview that Senta “has a screw loose”. Ricarda Merbeth gives a riveting performance, portraying Senta as more convincingly loopy than I’ve ever seen before, which makes dramatic sense. The Steersman becomes Daland’s assistant and has a lot of acting to do even when he’s not singing. Benjamin Bruns sings the small-but-treacherously-difficult part superbly and acts brilliantly the rest of the time. The chorus is excellent.Sound and pictures are both superb. Technical details: 24-bit LPCM Stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.I really enjoyed this and recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone accepting of “concept” productions. It’s definitely worth reading the notes in the booklet and watching the interviews before watching the opera – it will all make much more sense that way!

Wagner's (1813-1883) Flying Dutchman's premiere was at Dresden opera house, 1843 in one act. In 1860 the coda of the overture was remodelled, as well as the ending of the opera, which has a motif of redemption, inspired by Tristan und Isolde.I have every one of the live bluray recordings from Bayreuth, with their distinctive white covers,and other details on the front and back. For example, Die Walkure conducted by Thielemann, is about the Gods who are still amongest us today, but we are blind to this higher metaphysical dimension. A rather good idea, but Bayreuth decided it was too conservative to film properly. Die Meistersinger where von Stolzing, a hothead, turns into a conformist and Beckmesser becomes the most modern artist of all. Tristan und Isolde is about inward feelings. Lohengrin where the chorus are dressed like rats in different colours,which change depending on the moods of the main characters. Some hated these recordings, others liked them, as I did. I like both modern and Traditional staging. It is like art, you learn how to draw and paint reality, then when you know the rules you can become an abstract artist.This is another abstracted Wagner opera, but follows the libretto. Thielemann states in the interview that " I always try to picture the end at the beginning. The orchestra can become a storm if you do not know how to control it. Let the tension rise and you get the emotions. Also, lets leave the ending open to discussion. You do not have to show everything."This is the Directors view of this opera I think. This is about the world money market. The Dutchman has a lot of money and wanted more and is doomed to want more and see the futility of it all eternally. No one has wanted him for just himself, just his money. The spinning wheel scene, is a factory that produces fans. Senta is reacting against this shallow superficial world. Daland and the steerman are in a small boat. Surrounding the Dutchman are digital figures and lines, representing the World market,the data network, and superficial possiblities that make you want to obtain them and the sea which connects all. A beautiful Woman in a fur coat plays with the Dutchman's lower regions, she strips down to her pants. He throws money at her in disgust. He cuts himself to show he has no blood-lack of love, or being wanted.Within the spinning room, there are cardboard boxes with working women dressed in all light blue with a pink flower attached to their breasts; they make fans. This is a World that is highly materialistic, for the metaphysical state is scorned. However, Senta wants the Dutchman just for himself, not his riches. They both die. The factory makes statues of them for profit, with him bleeding from his arm, representing love to us. But the factory ignores why the two did kill themselves. It is outside their understanding.Daland in his suit, Franz-Josef Selig is convincing in his part, as is the Steersman Benjamin Bruns, who has a beautiful lyrical tenor voice. The Dutchman Samuel Youn, a lyrical Baritone, dressed in black captures the essence of the character. Senta Ricarda Merbeth blends in well with Youn in the marvellous duets. She is a fine soprano. Erik, the worker in the factory, Tomislav Muzek is equally at home in the role and is another fine tenor. Mary,a mezzo, Christa Meyer is good. The singing is tremendous. The choir is a character and has quite a lot of work to do. Thielemann conducts the Bayreuth festival orchestra in such a manner as to bring out the lovely melodies. His tempi are swift when required. At the end you see the theatre and the crowd.Highly recommended to those who like modern staging, not really for traditionalists.ALL REGIONS. SUBTITLES: English, French, German, Korean. LPCM 5.O. DTS-HD Master Audio. 16.9.EXTRA FEATURES: Interviews with Director Jan Gloger, Conductor Christian Thielemann, Chorus master Eberhard Friedrich and Tenor Benjamin Bruns. (Read it first before you view the opera)REFERENCES: Holden, A (Ed) The Penguin opera Guide.1995. Viking. Sadie,S. (Ed) The Grove Book of Operas. 2009.Oxford University Press.

Two men dressed in business suits and sitting in a stationary rowing boat is the worst possible way to stage the opening of Wagner's great work. After such a farcical beginning, whether or not what follows is well or badly acting and sung is of no real consequence. Whether or not moving the original historical period of an opera to another time and changing the costumes to fit in with the move is a desirable thing to do depends on how such changes will effect the proper understanding and appreciation of the work in question. In this respect, comedy often moves better in this way than does either tragedy or historical based works. Two businessmen in a rowing boat quite obviously do not fit in with the meaning of the legend behind the tale of the flying Dutchman. Whether or not this is a well sung and acted production or not after staging such an obvious faux pas is of no consequence because the whole meaning of the opera is destroyed before it really begins. It's not the Flying Dutchman and it's not Wagner. It may sound like Wagner, but then, so does a CD recording of Wagner's music. However, listening to his music is not watching the action of his works, which need to be properly presented to do justice to his obvious intentions, which this production certainly does not do.Although I might very well say that the music and singing in this presentation are top quality, such an observation is superfluous when we realise that the original intentions of Wagner when he composed this great work have been distorted out of all meaningful recognition of the great master's work. Only when costume, venue and period changes to an opera do not effect either its meaning or status are they acceptable. Since the changes made in this production seriously distort not only meaning and status by venue as well, no matter how well acted and sung it is, it is not the composition as intended by the composer and therefore cannot be assessed as such. I bought 'The Flying Dutchman', which is the opera I should be interviewing and not a travesty of it based on someone else's imagination. When I buy the Flying Dutchman by Wagner I expect to get the Flying Dutchman by Wagner and not a concoction of it based on someone else's creative imagination no matter how good that imagination might happen to be.You cannot have an authentic Wagnerian Flying Dutchman without invoking the presence of the sea, which is never there in this presentation. Maybe if Nelson had worn a business suit at the Battle of Trafalgar he wouldn't have got shot by the French sniper, but he was an admiral in the Royal Navy and proud to wear his uniform. It's an insult to the captain of the Flying Dutchman to dress him in the garb of a businessman. Because of this serious faux pas, no matter how good the music and singing, this presentation deserves no stars at all because it simply isn't the real story of Flying Dutchman as intended by Wagner. If it was called something else and presented as something different, then it would be assessable on its own merits and be awarded its due collection of stars accordingly, but it's not Wagner.