The Flying Dutchman in Adelaide

by Colin Mackerras AO

 

Site: The Festival Theatre, Adelaide

Opera Company: The State Opera of South Australia

Orchestra: Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Chorus: The State Opera Chorus

Conductor: Nicholas Braithwaite

Director: Chris Drummond

Set/Lighting Designer: Geoff Cobham

Costume Designer: Michael A R Anderson

Associate Conductor/Chorus Master: Timothy Sexton

 

The Dutchman: John Wegner

Senta: Margaret Medlyn

Erik: Stuart Skelton

Daland: Daniel Sumegi

Mary: Katherine Tier

Steersman: Angus Wood

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

 

Adelaide has probably established itself as the foremost city in Australia for Wagner. In 1998 and 2004, we had the complete Ring des Niebelungen, as well as Parsifal in 2001 and now The Flying Dutchman performed on 7, 10, 12 and 14 November 2009. This review is based on the 10 November performance, which I was fortunate enough to attend. It lives up to the splendid reputation previous Wagner performances at The Festival Theatre have led us to expect.

 

The Flying Dutchman is the earliest of the great series that won for Wagner a supreme place in the history of opera. For me it is hardly the greatest of his operas. Yet it is a masterpiece in itself and would have established for Wagner a secure place among opera-writers even had he died immediately after completing it. Already we find some of the themes that became so compelling in later works. The heroine Senta loosens the Dutchman from the judgement of Satan through self-sacrifice. She may not have the grandeur of Brünnhilde, whose sacrifice is necessary to release the world from Alberich’s curse on the ring, but the theme is essentially the same.

 

Musically, The Flying Dutchman is also far below the towering masterpieces that followed. Yet I’d make two points. One is that we see the germ of the dramatic and climactic music that makes Wagner’s music so stirring in the great aria “Die Frist Ist Um”, which the Dutchman sings on his first entrance in Act I. The rollicking music and choruses may be lacking in later works, but they have a definite appeal that makes them stay in the mind with a wish to dance in rhythm.

 

The Adelaide Dutchman was first-rate in almost every way. It was thoughtful, enjoyable and effective, good both on the ears and the eyes. One can criticise individual points, and I’ll do so later. However, in general terms it was wonderful and I give it a big tick.

 

I found the staging and production generally very effective indeed. Its principal characteristic was a rather bare stage with few stage properties, but with complex, evocative and colourful lighting and lasers, dominated by blue and red, no doubt representing the sea and blood respectively, for the libretto is clear that the Dutchman’s ship has blood-red sails. There was no curtain. During many scenes the stage was fairly or very dark, which is appropriate to the action of the opera. But spot-lights shone on the singers so that one found oneself always focusing on the main action. In the Spinning Chorus that begins Act II, the women held threads of light that represented spinning wheels. At the end of the opera, one has to imagine Senta jumping into the sea, but a burst of blue and red lights dissolves into two orange lights (perhaps stars) ascending into heaven together, representing the union and salvation of the lovers and the end of the Dutchman’s misery, the colour adjusted from red to show relief and joy.

 

I’d add a couple of nice sidelights in the production: The steersman speaks at length of his ‘girl’ (Mädel) in Act I. In this production she appears in the flesh dressed in a long deep blue dress, representing the vision in his mind. In Act III, she reappears in the same dress with him in the crowd scene when the sailors and their ‘girls’ make merry. The first scene of Act II is dominated by the picture of the Dutchman. Most of the time he wears a grave expression, with only one side of his face visible, the other side darkened. This was dramatic but even more so was that his face moved. Mostly he stared to the front, but at times looks downwards towards Senta, either to the left or the right.

 

The costuming is generally good and non-controversial. The actors wear clothes reminiscent of the old times when the opera is set, about the seventeenth century. The Dutchman’s outfit in the picture matches what he wears on the stage. The women wear long dresses, appropriate to the action.

 

In a Wagner opera, the music is always of crucial importance. The orchestra and chorus were both excellent. They played and sang together and in style. The tempi and volumes were all just right and reinforced my view of Braithwaite as a first-rate conductor of this sort of music.

 

The singers were mostly superb, as good as one would find anywhere. John Wegner was a really convincing and beautifully sounding Dutchman. He has matured greatly since I first saw him, as Wotan in the 1998 Adelaide Ring. He was our 2004 Adelaide Ring Alberich, just about the only fault I could find with him then being that he was just a little too good-looking for this part. I also saw him in Bayreuth as Kurwenal in Tristan and Isolde. I thought he did a great job of this very high baritone music, rich in voice, very much in style and with good volume control. His rendition of “Die Frist Ist Um” in the Dutchman was as good as I have heard, including in the recorded versions. On occasion his voice showed slight signs of wear, and it may not last for too much longer. But for the time being he is just wonderful. And in addition to singing so well, his acting was always convincing and in line with the characterisation and the music.

 

The Senta, Margaret Medlyn, was good but not wonderful. She was the only disappointment, and not a very serious one. I heard her sing Kundry in Wellington a few years ago, and she surprised me with the firmness and clarity of her singing, including in the upper register. Although she is a good actor and sang and acted Senta very much in style, she sounded strained on some of the high notes, which are numerous in this role. At her first appearance at the beginning of Act II, she sang a phrase an octave lower than written, apparently through fear she would not make the soft high notes with the required tonality.

 

Possibly the evening’s best singing came from Stuart Skelton, who had given us a splendid Siegmund in the 2004 Adelaide Ring. He played the role of Erik, the suitor Senta rejects in favour of the Dutchman. I have always felt sorry for Erik, but also that he is a bit too long-winded in telling Senta and the rest of us about his suffering. However, Skelton, sang with such beauty of tone, including reliable and beautiful ringing high notes, that I didn’t keep feeling “let’s get on” during his music.

 

Daniel Sumegi, the Daland, has a rich and compelling bass voice. He sang and acted the role beautifully and effectively and melded in just right with the Dutchman and Senta. Angus Wood sang beautifully and with feeling for his “girl”, who looms so large in the lyric. The only other minor role, Mary, also did a good job

 

Overall, there was not much to complain about in this Flying Dutchman. Adelaide has maintained its claim as Australia’s foremost Wagner city. I agree with the view Graham Strahle put forward in his review in The Australian (9 November 2009) that “in every way this is a winning, highly memorable production”.