The Phantom Ship
Richard Wagner
Derfliegende Holländer, romantic opera in three acts
Premiered on 2 January 1843 in Dresden, at the Königlich Sächsische Hoftheater
Music and libretto by Richard Wagner
The Phantom Ship : the stranger among us
Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman relates the sombre legend of a sailor condemned to wander the seas in search of redemption through love. Marie-Ève Signeyrole transposes this fable into the present day, where the Dutchman, no longer merely a cursed romantic figure, becomes a people smuggler – a cog in a machinery of exile, tragedies, borders and lives at risk. Livevideo creates a dual perspective between the stage and the screen, onto which is projected a lived and mediatised narrative, on a par with the images that flood today’s news. Between sea and land, the living and the dead, dreamt paradise and real hell, the production reveals the moment when a community that believes itself protected is overtaken by what it refuses to see. Far from the usual sacrificial figure, Senta emerges as a character torn between devotion and obsession, drawn to an image, a call, an origin. In this reading, salvation does not bring the tale to a close: it exposes a mechanism in which the curse is not broken, but passed from one person to another.
Durch Sturm und bösen Wind verschlagen, Irr’ auf den Wassern ich umher.
“Driven by storm and ill winds, I wander aimlessly upon the waters.” (The Dutchman)
Distribution
Production
Opéra Orchestre Normandie Rouen
Co- production
Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine
Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine Orchestra
Choruses of the Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine and the Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Métropole
Conductor
David Reiland
Chorus Master
Virginie Déjos
Stage direction and Video Design
Marie-Ève Signeyrole
Set Design
Fabien Teigné
Costumes
Yashi
Lighting
Philippe Berthomé
Video
Céline Baril
Dramaturgy
Louis Geisler
Assistant Director
Katja Krüger
The Dutchman
Shenyang
Senta
Sinéad Campbell Wallace
Erik
John Findon
Daland
William Thomas
Mary
Julie Pasturaud
Daland’s helmsman
Liam Bonthrone
Exploring further
Eldorado (Laurent Gaudé, 2006): A novel built on a dual perspective (migrant and border guard), which lays bare the mirage of the promised land and the way in which systems turn everyone into a cog in the machine.
The Other Side of Hope (Aki Kaurismäki, 2017): The figure of the stranger reveals, with biting sobriety, the contradictions of a society that claims to be welcoming whilst organising exclusion.
Event in partnership with Le Hall du Livre Nancy: Fri 22 Jan at 7pm
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