Richard Wagner
Opera North
Grand Theatre, Leeds
February 8-21, 2025: 2 hrs 50 mins
(Also on February 8,11,14 and 21 in Leeds; March 8 at Newcastle Theatre Royal; March 15 at the Lowry, Salford; March 22 at Nottingham Theatre Royal, and March 28 at Hull New Theatre)
The title should really be The Fleeing Dutchman, as the traditional anglicisation, like the German, uses “flying” in the semi-obsolete sense of trying to escape. And Annabel Arden’s production sees its male protagonist very much as one who seeks sanctuary; not so much lost soul on the high seas as symbolic manifestation of all refugees.
Opera North has become a “Theatre of Sanctuary”: each Act of The Flying Dutchman opens with a sound recording of an asylum seeker’s description of their experience facing the UK’s way of welcome, if that’s the right word.
So there’s no ghost ship appearing through the mist, and not even much evidence of seafaring folk. The stormy seascape in the music is unavoidable, though, so video projections show us some sea. But once the human characters appear, we’re on dry land.
The opera itself is reinterpreted to make Daland (in the original, a captain whose ship encounters the mysterious Dutchman and his crew), a UK Home Secretary, with his chaotic departmental team seen attempting to pilot the immigration policy of the ship of state.
The ”steersman” of Daland’s ship is amalgamated with Erik, his daughter’s would-be suitor (an easy modification to make; both are tenor roles), and she – Senta – is duly bewitched by the mysterious and disruptive fleeing stranger. Only she can rescue him from his fate, by being willing to give up her life, as in the traditional legend.
It’s an adaptation that kind-of works: Wagner’s great duet for Senta and the Dutchman is a strange sort of love duet, since they each refer to each other in the third person, and so her virtue is presented as a type of self-sacrificing empathy rather than romantic attraction.
Set, costume and video designer Joanna Parker follows through on the symbolic concepts faithfully, and the message is clear enough. Wagner saw himself as something of a "Great Disruptor", and in his early years was a bit of a political revolutionary, too, so in one sense all his operas are about the things of this world. Ask any Latvian and you’ll find they are quite proud of the fact that he had to escape his creditors in Riga, after working unsuccessfully there, by boarding a ship that sailed the Baltic in the teeth of a gale – he said that inspired this opera.
The virtues of the musical achievement, under music director Garry Walker’s baton, are very strong indeed. Robert Hayward makes the Dutchman sympathetic, singing with full tone, warm vibrato and stamina throughout; Clive Bayley is by no means the baleful baddie he can portray, but lively and almost completely consistent in voice production over the whole span of the near-three-hour opera; Edgaras Montvidas has a glowing tenor tone that he husbands carefully, hitting a ringing climax in the last Act.
Sadly, Canadian soprano Layla Claire, as Senta, was reduced to “walking” the role on the first night, while Mari Wyn Williams sang the role from the score at the side of the stage. It proved a remarkable performance from each of them, but naturally not the experience that had been planned. The final trio (Dutchman, Erik and Senta) reached a superb peak that rounded off the whole performance, while the power of the Chorus of Opera North was something to cherish and appreciate.
I later had the opportunity to hear Layla Claire in full voice singing the role herself, and it was clearly one that audiences on other occasions have relished. Her acting ability was never in doubt: her voice, once in its fully focussed richness, has both warmth and an edge that dominates Wagner's texures powerfully.
More info and tickets here
