Organization

Bayreuther Festspiele

Conductor

Woldemar Nelsson

Set designer

Peter Sykora

Costume designer

Reinhard Heinrich

Singer

Bass-baritone

Simon Estes

The Dutchman

Soprano

Lisbeth Balslev

Senta

Bass

Matti Salminen

Daland

Tenor

Robert Schunk

Eric

Mezzo-soprano

Anny Schlemm

Mary

Graham Clark

Daland's Steersman

German

Der fliegende Holländer -  (The Flying Dutchman)

Bayreuth

Germany

In his Bayreuth production (première 1978), Harry Kupfer went back to the more direct, harder original Dresden version from 1843. On the occasion of the performances of his opera in Zurich and Munich, Wagner himself had smoothed out the original instrumentation somewhat and added the so-called "Redemption Conclusion" to the overture and the third act. In Bayreuth there were heated arguments between old Wagnerians and more progressive Wagner friends, because in Harry Kupfer's staging the entire operatic plot is nothing more than a hallucination of Senta: the director sees her as a highly neurotic, schizophrenic girl, haunted by her longing for the restlessly wandering Dutchman falls into a kind of trance and experiences her own drama as a vision.

This production is still one of the most important productions in the performance history of the "Flying Dutchman".

"If this Dutchman ran in a cosmopolitan city like London or New York, he would be a sold-out hit for years and decades... You have to see that..." (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

"The video recording is even more impressive than in the Bayreuth long shot, how grandiose Kupfer implemented this concept and how musically he proceeded. Every movement and every gesture is indeed right." (The world)

Der fliegende Holländer Wagner,Richard

Public

The Flying Dutchman

Approved

Photos