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The Flying Dutchman

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Richard Wagner
7, 10, 12, 14 November
7.30pm Adelaide Festival Theatre
Proudly sponsored by United Utilities Australia

A Norwegian ship takes refuge from a storm in a fjord. A ghostly ship with blood red sails draws alongside, making landfall for the first time in seven years. Its captain is the Flying Dutchman, condemned to sail the seas until the Day of Judgment. His redemption from the curse of eternal wandering can be achieved only through the love of a faithful woman. Such a woman is Senta.

So begins Richard Wagner's gripping and elemental The Flying Dutchman, the composer's first great essay on themes to which he returned again and again throughout his creative life: wandering and yearning, dreams and illusion, and redemption through love.

The natural forces - sea, tempest and gale - are brilliantly evoked in the orchestral score, and they are as much participants as any of the human characters. Franz Liszt spoke of The Flying Dutchman's 'salty breeze', and one conductor remarked that 'the wind blows out at you wherever you open the score'. And yet, the physicality of the music is superbly balanced by the lyricism of Erik and Daland's arias, the famous Spinning Chorus, the exciting chorus of the Norwegian sailors, the anguish and despair of the Dutchman and, above all, the redemptive vision of Senta. In this new production under the musical direction of eminent Wagner conductor Nicholas Braithwaite, stage direction of Chris Drummond, and with set designs by Geoff Cobham, Adelaide will be re-affirming its special association with the works of Wagner, established with the mighty Rings of 1998 and 2004 and the beautiful Parsifal of 2001.

The Flying Dutchman of 2009 will undoubtedly be another landmark in Adelaide's operatic history.

Conductor: Nicholas Braithwaite
Director: Chris Drummond
Designs (Set, Lighting): Geoff Cobham
Chorusmaster: Timothy Sexton
Dutchman: John Wegner
Senta: Margaret Medlyn
Erik: Stuart Skelton
Daland: Daniel Sumegi
Mary: Katharine Tier
Steersman: Angus Wood

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

State Opera Chorus

Sung in German with English Surtitles

Running time: approximately three hours including one twenty minute interval

Production Sneak Peek Video