| Opera Holland Park | ||
| Peter Selwyn | Conductor | |
| Julia Burbach | Director | |
| Naomi Dawson | Set Designer | |
| Sussie Juhlin-Wallén | Costume Designer | |
| Robert Price | Lighting Designer | |
| City of London Sinfonia | ||
| Opera Holland Park Chorus | ||
| Paul Carey Jones | Baritone | Dutchman |
| Eleanor Dennis | Soprano | Senta |
| Robert Winslade Anderson | Bass | Daland |
| Neal Cooper | Tenor | Erik |
| Angharad Lyddon | Mezzo-soprano | Mary |
| Colin Judson | Tenor | The Steersman |
Love, greed, hubris and obsession drive a narrative shaped by the sea and its legends in Wagner’s revolutionary opera of damnation and redemption.
Premiered in 1843, Wagner’s first great opera, and his most concise, looks back to the Gothic mysteries of his youth and forward to the penetrating psychological dramas he would later craft. Love, greed, hubris and obsession drive a narrative shaped by the sea and those whose lives depend on it, opening with a violent storm in which echoes of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Weber can be heard, and punctuated by folk-like ballads for the sailors and the women who wait for their return. Cursed to sail for eternity with his ghostly crew, the Dutchman can only be redeemed by the love of a faithful woman. Daland’s daughter Senta, betrothed to Erik, is shocked to recognise the Dutchman from an ancient painting acquired by her grandmother. Their love is instant, but will it be strong enough to lift the Dutchman’s curse?