Little known Flying Dutchman may be my favourite Wagner opera yet

My first post-surgical foray out of the house, other than for doctor's appointments, was to the opera. I was still floating on pain medications and not good for much more than six hours of continuous activity, but we'd had tickets to Wagner's The Flying Dutchman for ages (Piers' reward for coming to La Traviata last month), and I really didn't want to miss it. Even though the drugs in my system pretty much ensured that this was not going to be the first Wagner opera through which I managed to stay awake from start to finish.

That's not to say this is a long or a boring show. In fact, at three acts in just over two hours hours it's a snippet in Wagnerian terms. The only problem with this running time is that producers need to decide whether to put intervals after each short act, or just run the thing straight through. The ROH went for the latter. And even with a good plot and a nap, the cheap seats up top are not built for that kind of extended incarceration.

The plot deals with grand legend. A captain and his crew have been cursed to sail the seas forever, only coming ashore once every seven years. If, in that brief shore leave, the captain finds true love, he can break the curse. (Yes, you recognise this from the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Wagner's not the only one to get some mileage out of this plot.) In a boring Norwegian town, a young girl named Senta has fallen in love with the legend and dreams of breaking the curse. Things look set for a happy ending when Senta's father, also a ship's captain, brings home a fellow captain he's met at sea. It's the Dutchman, and he and Senta fall in love immediately, making plans to marry. Unfortunately, a local boy with a passion for Senta shows up to plead his case, and his very existence causes the Dutchman to doubt Senta's constancy, and the wisdom of her commitment. So he sails away.

In Wagner's ending, Senta throws herself into the sea after his departing ship. She dies, but this proof of her enduring love breaks the curse. (You didn't expect a cheerful close, did you?) For some reason ... maybe it was too expensive to stage a watery suicide convincingly? ... Senta doesn't die in the current version, she just sinks to the stage cradling a model of the Dutchman's ship, over which she'd been obsessing since before she met him.

I'm not sure it was Wagner's intent, but the main theme in this production seemed to be the dangerous passions of teenage girls. The staging was modern and grim. Senta worked in a grey sweatshop. She would have indulged in any fantasy that would get her out of town; one that involved mythic passions and redemption was irresistible. There is a stage in the lives of most teenage girls when they cling to the tale of Romeo and Juliet and think there'd be nothing better than to die for love. This is just where Senta is when we meet her, and why her foolish love-at-first-sight for the Dutchman is actually so credible.

Though not considered one of Wagner's greatest operas, I quite possibly enjoyed this more than the installments of the Ring Cycle we've seen. Good plot, credible impetus for the love story, and the action moves at a decent pace. A great overture that evokes the stormy majesty of the seas, with equally dramatic music throughout. I wouldn't mind sitting through another interpretation of The Flying Dutchman to see what other companies would do with it.