Opera Review: When Her Ship Comes In

The Met revives Der fliegende Holländer.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

I will leave you, loudly: Amber Wagner and Michael Volle in a scene from
Der fliegender Holländer. Photo by Richard Termine © 2017 The Metropolitan Opera.

There's been a lot of excitement about the Metropolitan Opera's late-season revival of Der fliegende Holländer ("The Flying Dutchman") which opened last week and was seen by this writer at Saturday's matinée performance. This revival marks the first Wagner excursions at the Met for both Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the company's newly anointed incoming music director, and baritone Michael Volle, who has been tabbed by general manager Peter Gelb as both Wotan and Hans Sachs in seasons to come.

Opera Review: Shipping Up to Boston

Boston Lyric Opera mounts The Flying Dutchman.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Alison Oakes as Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer.
Photo by Eric Antoniou © 2013 Boston Lyric Opera.

Boston Lyric Opera sailed boldly into treacherous waters this week with Der Fliegende Holländer ("The Flying Dutchman") at the Shubert Theater. This is the company's first Wagner production in two decades. and a rare chance for Bostonians to experience a fully-staged performance of one of that composer's major operas.

Bass Booted from Bayreuth

Bass Evgeny Nikitin loses starring role over chest tattoo.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bass Evgeny Nikitin's chest tattoo (left) has cost him a starring role at the Bayreuth Festival.
Photo from Intermezzo.

The sins of Germany's past are very much on the mind of opera-goers as the Bayreuth Festival opens next week. The big story from the Green Hill: Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin cancelled  his appearance at this year's festival, due to a tattoo that originally depicted a swastika.

Mr. Nikitin, 38 was scheduled to sing the title role in the Festival's lone new offering this season, a staging of Der Fliegende Holländer. His cancellation was announced two days ago. A replacement, Korean bass Samuel Youn as named yesterday for the new production, which opens July 25.

A tattoo on Mr. Nikitin's chest originally depicted the symbol of Hitler's Germany, along with Germanic runes that the singer, a native of the Russian city of Murmansk, picked out in a tattoo parlor many years ago. The symbols have absolutely no political significance for me, but a spiritual one. I was never a member of a political party and am still not today," he said in an e-mail to the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. 

Recordings Review: Sail of the Century

Marek Janowski's new Der Fliegende Holländer.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The legendary Flying Dutchman sits down for a meal on SpongeBob SquarePants.
Promotional image for Ship O Ghouls, © 1999 United Plankton Pictures/Nickelodeon Studios.

The second installment of Marek Janowski's Wagner project for Pentatone Classics--a plan to record new concert versions of the ten "main sequence" Wagner operas is Der Fliegende Holländer. Again, this recording features the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Mr. Janowski. This recording was made at one performance: on November 13, 2010.

Mr. Janowski's brisk approach to this music is particularly well suited to the famous overture, which has more to do with Weber than Wagner's later music drama. He is helped by strong playing from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. The strings kick up salt spray. The horns search and surge. And the trumpet call (symbol of the Dutchman's defiance of the forces of Hell) sounds like the wrath of God. 

Part of the problem with a performance of Dutchman is that the 29-year old Wagner laid out all the themes of the opera in that short overture: which means that you need really good singers to make Die frist ist um and Senta's Ballad dramatically involving. Mr. Janowski offers a strong cast. Albert Dohmen's dark, melancholy bass-baritone is perfectly suited to the title character. He walks the edge of mystery and menace, with raw passion underneath.