REVIEW: The Flying Dutchman, Theatre Royal
Opera North ended their spring visit with Wagner’s maritime thriller
It’s not often that Wagner pops up at the Theatre Royal so a single performance of his glowering early masterpiece was bound to be something of an event.
Actually, that’s poorly phrased. Wagner doesn’t ‘pop up’. He comes thundering in like one of those named storms on a tidal wave of sound.
But he’s a storm that draws rather than deters and that was the case here, all tickets bar a handful gone before the first portentous note had sounded from a packed orchestra pit (Wagner operas requiring the heavy brigade rather than the light infantry).
Reviews had been mixed, some questioning director Annabel Arden’s decision to make an ancient ghost ship legend a parable about illegal immigrants crossing the Channel in flimsy boats.
But you go with the flow – and we were primed from the off by the company manager explaining from the stage that Opera North was proud to be an official ‘Company of Sanctuary’.
So while the Home Office as a ship in turbulent waters requires a leap of the imagination and clearly lacks the visual impact of a spectral galleon (even with flashing data and panicking civil servants), there was no denying the moving nature of the real-life testimonies – one by the sole survivor from an over-laden dinghy - that introduced each of the three acts.
Incongruity aside (the gloomy Dutchman, condemned by Satan to be forever at sea, suddenly appearing on a modern office table, for instance, even if only in a dream), there was much to impress.
The singing and the playing were as brilliantly executed and as visceral as you could wish.
Bass-baritone Robert Hayward was magnificent as the Dutchman, his mastery of the vocal complexities shivering the timbers to the extent that one dolorous aria brought a loud “Bravo!” from an audience member.
Deprived of a proper vessel, he did look more like a relic of a Seventies prog rock band than a spooky seafarer, but compelling nonetheless.
In accordance with the legend, this Dutchman comes ashore once every seven years, and if he can find a wife who will be true to him he will be released from the curse.
You could tell this had become a half-hearted quest following many disappointments but then besuited Daland (Clive Bayley), running the Whitehall ‘ship’, generously offers daughter Senta and things look up.
Senta, though, is loved by Erik, Daland’s Civil Service underling, and understandably he’s not happy about this turn of events.
Thrillingly brought to life by Lithuanian-born tenor Edgaras Montvidas and Canadian soprano Layla Claire, their vocal interactions were a highlight of the night. I thought they also deserved a “Bravo!” but our performative friend in the stalls did not oblige – perhaps stunned into silence.
Finally, to the surprise of everyone and not least the Dutchman, Senta nobly sacrifices herself to free him from the curse – a fitting end on International Women’s Day you might not think!
A word for the excellent and energetic Chorus of Opera North, required to sing while performing Angelo Smimmo’s rather robotic choreography which I enjoyed.
And with that ship having sailed, that was it from Opera North in Newcastle until the autumn - although you can still catch The Flying Dutchman in Salford, Nottingham or Hull (ticket availability permitting).