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Premiere Frankfurt am Main - The Flying Dutchman 1999

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Opera Frankfurt (am Main), Premiere, October 2, 1999

Der Fliegende Holländer - The Flying Dutchman

Text by Birgit Popp

The decision of the Italian conductor Paolo Carignani was right to choose Wagner's romantic, in 1843 at Dresden (Germany) for the first time performed opera 'Der fliegende Holländer' (The Flying Dutchman) as his first new production in his function as General Music Director of the Frankfurt Opera House. The audience of the first night paid great applause on October 2, 1999. Paolo Carignani as musical and Anthony Pilavachi as stage director had chosen the version of 1860 with a salvation-end to the sound of a harp, as the whole production stands in the field of tension between curse, death, longing and salvation. Regarding this point Pilavachi had explained before the first night in agreement with the conductor, "It is not a traditional production, but it is an attempt to bring back on stage the origin of Wagner's thoughts, to reveal the subtleties and the genius of Wagner's music. Doing this we want to emphasize the Italian, the Belcanto-aspect of this opera." They succeeded in this aim. Under the baton of Paolo Carignani developed the whole richness of colors and melodies in Wagner's work.

The settings are abstract-realistic like the story is a mixing of the real and the supernatural and they create a tightly packed, ghostly atmosphere. It was the ghost story, which especially fascinated stage director Anthony Pilavachi about Wagner's opera and this fascination spread to the spectators. Visually the gloomy element develops especially when the Flying Dutchman appears for the first time and the lateral parts of the stage shaped in the form of side walls of ship move onto the stage. They give the impression as the whole events would be caught from now on in a ship's belly. These side walls will vanish again in the moment of salvation in the last scene. Even if the general mood is gloomy and threatening, it owns the music and the idea of salvation following as well cheerful and merry elements. The lightning (Olaf Winter) and the settings (Dieter Richter) form an effective whole. Jutta Delorme created costumes full of lovely details, especially the one of the Flying Dutchman, which is of the 16th century, the time, when he should have lived.

Bernd Weikl, who has given this part in many places including Bayreuth and Vienna, is in voice and appearance an imposing embodiment of the title role. His powerful and still sensible baritone mirrors longing and desperation, hope and joy. Eva Johansson gives a dramatic-yearning Senta, who gets well along with the jumps from the depths to the heights in the score. Andreas Macco as her father Daland reminds more about a nobleman than a Norwegian ship's captain, but his 'Belcanto'-bass captivates. The tenor parts are represented by John Horton Murray as Erik and Hans-Jürgen Lazar and Peter Marsh respectively as the helmsman. A great part in the success of Wagner's opera have the choir and the orchestra of the Frankfurt Opera, which find precisely their entries. Important are also the by the conductor well kept breaks in the score. They create and push the tension. When the singers and orchestra fell silent in those breaks, the auditorium of the first night was full of breathless silence. Nobody wanted to miss the next tone.

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