This hints at the ghostly mystique of the scenario, but also serves more specific purposes. On land, the stage is filled with rows of sewing machines and a gangway, and David Finn’s lighting is kept generally low throughout. On the physical level this could simply represent his means of coming ashore, but it also reveals how he is shackled to the high seas. Ladders and ropes cross the stage creating eye-catching diagonals, and it is interesting that the Dutchman first appears at the end of a long rope. When it rises, we are met with Michael Levine’s bare sloping stage that curves up at the back corners, emulating a ship’s hull while also providing a suitable basis for the land scenes. The Overture sees ripples sent across, and rain appearing on, the stage curtain, thus simulating a stormy sea. The production was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2009, and watching how it generates a poignant atmosphere from start to finish, it is easy to see why. Terfel, by generating a more human presence, enables there to be a greater two-way chemistry that helps us to vest greater emotional interest in the relationship. Silins’ suggests that the Dutchman’s thoughts are far less on his new love than on escaping the curse, with the consequence that the love witnessed between Senta and the Dutchman seems to flow predominantly one way. The causes of the character’s current position remain identical of course, but in Terfel’s portrayal the torment felt by the Dutchman seems more like world weariness, which suggests that redemption is a serious possibility, and that he does stand an outside chance of bringing himself back from the brink.Īlthough this comparison is not aimed at labelling one interpretation as better than the other, there is one respect in which Terfel’s approach has its advantages. In contrast, Bryn Terfel, who took the role in the original production, has a far earthier persona. When Egils Silins took the role of the Dutchman in 2011, he had an eerie ghostly presence, and it seemed as if his wish to find a lover who will release him was run very close by a simple desire to die. The third outing for Tim Albery’s Der fliegende Holländer of 2009, revived here by Daniel Dooner, illustrates how two differing portrayals of a central character can put a substantially different spin on exactly the same production.
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