Wagner’s Dutchman drops anchor in Provence

If you’re looking for a rollicking, roistering voyage through Wagner’s seafaring escapade Der fliegende Holländer, it helps to have François-Xavier Roth at the helm. Captaining the Good Ship Gürzenich, with a hearty crew from Oper Köln, the Dutchman dropped anchor in Marseille for a one-night stand at the Festival de Pâques d’Aix-en-Provence. Played straight through, this concert performance sailed along at the rate of knots – just two hours and seven minutes – with no pause for breath nor interval, Roth instead swigging a bottle of water on-the-go while launching his orchestra lustily into Act 3. 

This was a loud, often thrilling performance. It could (just) have been louder – the heavy brass were not on risers, but tucked behind the strings, where they still made an impact. The dapper Roth, conducting with a pencil, was a bundle of energy, driving the drama, but also timing transitions to perfection, such as the switch from Act 1's hearty sailors to Act 2’s Spinning Chorus. A dodgy horn flub or two at the Dutchman’s first appearance apart, the Gürzenich Orchester was on stylish form. 

The cast was in evening dress, but there were no music stands and the performance had a theatrical air to it for the most part, with the singers truly inside their roles. This is unsurprising given that a new production by Benjamin Lazar has just opened in Cologne, with this rendition as an Easter getaway in sunny Provence. Two narrow platforms defined the acting space either side of Roth. Singers came and went, mostly as the libretto demands it, although it was awkward for Daland to introduce his daughter to the Dutchman when neither was present on the stage. 

Bass-baritone James Rutherford is a seasoned Wagnerian and his sturdy Dutchman sounded suitably weathered and oaken-toned. His monologue “Die Frist ist um” was particularly well inflected, relating his accursed fate, doomed to sail the seas without rest. Daland was Austrian bass Karl-Heinz Lehner, whose weighty instrument had tremendous presence but was also well manoeuvred in the almost Donizettian duet with the Dutchman when Daland succumbs to the offer of gold in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage. 

Swedish dramatic soprano Ingela Brimberg was a very fine Senta. Her ballad was sung with great intonation, her incisive tone, with blue-silvery colours, slicing through the orchestral texture with ease, but also displaying huge dynamic variation. The role of the despairing Erik, Senta’s erstwhile love interest, was sung by Maximilian Schmitt, a touch weak on his high notes, but competent. Dalia Schaechter was a slightly raddled Mary, Dmitry Ivanchey a lyrical Steersman. 

The most dramatic moment of the evening came when the men’s chorus filed to the front of the stage to deliver the terrifying song of the Dutchman’s ghostly crew directly into the audience’s faces – a hair-raising moment that will live long in the memory. 

Staged performances resume in Cologne shortly. Intriguingly, the cast also takes it to France in May, where the orchestra will be Roth’s versatile period instrument band, Les Siècles.

Mark’s press trip was funded by the Festival de Pâques d'Aix-en-Provence