Opera review: All aboard for a highly-enjoyable production of The Flying Dutchman
Giselle Allen and James Creswell in Irish National Opera’s production of The Flying Dutchman. Picture: Patrick Redmond.
★★★★☆
Since the inception of the exceptionally productive outfit that is the Irish National Opera, Irish audiences have feasted on Strauss, Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Rossini, and all the other big hitters (as well as a host of contemporary talents, of course).
One name, however, has been significant by its absence: that of Richard Wagner, that controversial giant of modern music.
We may go to Wagner expecting everything to be epic: sound, scale, and, notoriously, length. But perhaps mercifully, or with an eye on the uninitiated, the INO has opted for , a melodrama of, by Wagner’s standards, remarkable focus and concision. Even with a fire alarm extending the interval, we’re in and out in about three hours.
The story, said to be inspired by a rough voyage of Wagner’s own, takes up the legend of the titular ghost ship, its mariner doomed to sail forever, unless he can find true love when able to come ashore every seven years. It’s that time now, and it looks like Senta, daughter of ship’s captain Daland, may be that unlucky lady.
The atmospheric overture plays out with some ominous foreshadowing from director Rachael Hewer. Here, we see Senta as a girl being initiated by a storybook into the legend of the Dutchman.
Behind, animated against sails, is the ship itself, rocked by stormy seas in images evoking an early Hollywood swashbuckler.
The design by Francis O’Connor is rich in details like this, a slanted ship’s mast centers the maritime theme, which continues when the action moves ashore, with the addition of a lighthouse, and the swapping of the women’s textile mill for a lively fish factory scene.
In these aspects of design and narrative, Hewer’s production exemplifies the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk that appealed to Wagner (who wrote his own libretti), emphasizing unity of drama, music and visuals.
It’s there, of course, in Wagner’s lyrical and musical motifs, from the opening “Johohoe” or “Heigho” of Daland’s crew, which is repeated in Senta’s ballad and then by the Dutchman himself.
It all has the effect of lacing the unfolding drama with irony, one that attains a terrible resonance in a final, shocking tableau. A fitting reintroduction then, were it needed, to Wagner’s art.
Among the performers, soprano Giselle Allen as Senta gives a vivid characterisation, even climbing that mast to hit some high notes. James Creswell is an equally convincing ship’s captain, his bass clear and commanding.
Baritone Jordan Shanahan is the Dutchman, impressing in his initial exposition of his fate, and his duets later on with Senta.
The show is stolen by the choral contributors, however, who really relish the turned-up-to-11 backing they get from the orchestra under Fergus Sheil for some seriously powerful passages.
It's heavy metal opera, as Jurgen Klopp might say, as the sailors belt out a drinking song as they try to rouse the Flying Dutchman’s crew.
A descent into something out of a zombie movie is wild, but not unexpected, or unintentionally funny. Not a bit of it. Hewer, unlike perhaps Daland, runs a tight ship here, and assuredly steers course for the tragic denouement of a satisfying production.
- Until March 29.
