The Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman
by Richard Wagner
	Wagner, ca. 1840
Genre	Opera in 3 acts
Native title	Der fliegende Holländer
Librettist	Richard Wagner
Language	German
Based on	Legend
Premiere	Semper Oper,; Dresden, Germany; 1843

Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) is an opera by Richard Wagner. Wagner wrote the libretto himself. The story comes from the legend of the Flying Dutchman, which is about the captain of a ship. It is his fate that he has keep sailing the sea, without ever going on to land, until Judgment Day.

The most important idea in the story as told by Wagner is redemption through love. It was a favourite idea of Wagner, who used it a lot in his later operas.

Wagner conducted the first performance at the Semper Oper in Dresden, in 1843. It is an early opera of Wagner, but it shows his mature style. It is very different from the previous opera Rienzi which is still quite similar to operas that other composers were writing. In Der fliegende Holländer the drama is very important. Wagner uses a number of leitmotifs: musical ideas associated with particular characters and themes in the story. The leitmotifs are all introduced in the overture. We hear the famous leitmotif of the ocean and then those of the Dutchman and of Senta, the girl he falls in love with.

Wagner originally wrote Der fliegende Holländer to be performed without any breaks (intermission). Sometimes it is performed like that today, but Wagner also made a version with three acts.

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The Flying Dutchman Media

View of Table Bay (overlooked by Kaapstad, Dutch Cape Colony) with ships of the Dutch East India Company, c. 1683. In the 17th century, the size of the Dutch merchant fleet probably exceeded the combined fleets of England, France, Spain, Portugal, and the German states.
An 18th-century painting of a VOC ship with Table Mountain in the background, used by navigators as the landmark to sail around southern tip of Africa
In the Age of Sail, the Brouwer Route, devised by the Dutch navigator Hendrik Brouwer in 1611, greatly reduced the voyage between Cape of Good Hope (Dutch Cape Colony) to Java (Dutch East Indies) from almost 12 months to about 6 months, compared to the previous Arab and Portuguese monsoon route.
Replica of an East Indiaman of the Dutch East India Company/United East Indies Company (VOC). The legend of the Flying Dutchman is likely to have originated from the 17th-century golden age of the VOC.
Book illustration showing superior mirages of two boats
Depiction of Richard Wagner's Opera Der fliegende Holländer
Disney's Flying Dutchman prop used in Pirates of the Caribbean moored at Castaway Cay cruise ship terminal
Flying Dutchman rollercoaster at Efteling amusement park
Poster from the Don Thomas Collection. Mr. Thomas was a collector of aircraft memorabilia who donated several posters to the San Diego Air and Space Museum.*Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive