Vancouver Opera: The Flying Dutchman at Queen Elizabeth Theatre

The Flying Dutchman is a German-language opera premiered in Dresden in Germany in 1843, the music written by the famous composer, Richard Wagner. Wagner, at the age of 26, employed as a conductor, had run up significant debts arising from his opulent lifestyle. In an attempt to feel his creditors, he sailed over turbulent seas from Riga to Paris, a journey which should have taken eight days actually lasted three weeks.

Arriving in Paris, almost penniless, the Wagner's battled for a few years until Richard formed the idea of writing an opera, based on the theme of the Flying Dutchman, with some of his own experiences highlighted in the piece.

He intended the opera to be performed without an intermission break. Some opera houses today, still perform the written piece as intended, but at the time, having written the story line to the opera in three parts, merely broke the musical book into three sections. The opera tells of a narrator watching a fictitious scene of the sea captain cursed forever, to sail the seals as punishment for blasphemy, and can only be redeemed by the love of a beautiful maiden.