The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Hollander)
Romantic Opera (Wagner's designation)
Romantic Opera (Wagner's designation)
PREMIERE:
January
2, 1843 at Royal Saxon Court Theater, Dresden
FIRST
PERFORMANCES:
1870
(in Italian), London
1876
(in Italian), Philadelphia
1877
(in Italian), New York City
Wagner
sent a prose scenario (in French) based on the legend of The Flying
Dutchman and on Heinrich Heine's story (“The Memoirs of Mister Von
Schnabelewopski”) to Giacomo Meyerbeer's librettist, Eugene Scribe, with the
proposal that he turn it into the libretto of a one act opera which would serve
as a curtain raiser to a larger ballet. The commission for said composition would
naturally be awarded to Wagner. This, for various reasons, did not pan out.
Wagner
sold the original scenario for 500 francs to the Paris Opera who then
commissioned two librettists and the composer Pierre-Louis-Phillippe Dietsch to
rework the piece. Paris Opera then produced Le
Vaisseau Fanthome which set sail and promptly sank after 11 performances. Wagner,
ever the dramatist of his own life, stated that he was forced to sell the
scenario in order to rent the piano he needed to compose the opera.
In
1841 Wagner finished his first full version of The Flying Dutchman but his initial score was not performed in his
lifetime (BLO's production is a rare chance to hear Wagner's original
intention. Read this note from David Angus, BLO's Music Director and conductor of
DUTCHMAN for a more in-depth look into the music of the 1841 Critical Edition).
A
few weeks before the 1843 premiere in Dresden, the opera was still set off the
Scottish coast (following Heine’s story), with Daland and Eric named Donald and
Georg, respectively. BLO’s production uses the original nomenclature (but no
kilts!). Originally written in three acts to be played without interruption,
Wagner revised (and had published) the piece into the more conventional form of
three distinct acts. He made revisions to the score in 1846, 1852, and again in
1860.
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