Vancouver Opera: The Flying Dutchman at Queen Elizabeth Theatre

The Flying Dutchman 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. The opera was intended to be performed without an intermission break. Some opera houses today, still perform the written piece as intended, but to break with traditions of the time, Wagner, having written the story line to the opera in three parts, merely broke the musical book into three sections.

The Flying Dutchman is a German opera which premiered in Dresden in Germany in 1843, the music written by the famous composer, Richard Wagner. Wagner, at the time, was only 26, employed as a conductor. He had run up significant debts following his extravagant lifestyle. In an attempt to escape his debts and his creditors, he bravely sailed the turbulent seas to Paris from Riga. The sea voyage should have taken eight days, but actually lasted three weeks. Arriving in Paris, almost penniless and destitute, the Wagner’s battled on for a few years until Richard came up with the idea of writing an opera, based on the theme of the Flying Dutchman, with some of his own experiences highlighted in the story line.