Gaiety Theatre
Anyone trying to piece together the facts of music history from performances in Dublin would have a pretty difficult time when placing Wagner in context. In the annals of Opera Ireland, Verdi's Ballo in maschera alone has received as many productions as all of Wagner's works lumped together. So the fact that a new production of Der fliegende Hollander, directed by Nicholas Muni and designed by Peter Werner, finally brings Wagner ahead of all those Ballos has to be a welcome development Muni and Werner have created a spare setting, the stage dominated by a grey raised platform, like a toppled headstone jutting over the orchestra pit, which manages to suggest ships by means of ropes drawn in from the wings. Set and costumes are as if drained of colour, leaving the red cloaking of the Dutchman in act one and the white of Senta's wedding dress in act three to shock with their explicitness. The bleakness and sense of oppressive inevitability are hardly punctured by the venal Daland (the vocally impressive if linguistically incomprehensible Stanislav Shwets) or his slightly clownish Steersman (Richard Coxon). Neither the Dutchman of Johannes von Duisburg nor the Senta of Claire Primrose are entirely pleasing on the ear. Both put their voices under too much pressure, the former with sometimes unyielding penetration, the latter with a slight edginess. But although the moments of contrast are rare, they are there, and the transcendence of their love, at once fatal and redemptive, casts its expected spell. Completing the cast are Timothy Mussard as a rough-hewn Erik and Anne Wilkens as a matronly Mary.
The French conductor, Laurent Wagner, whips up a fair amount of sea-spray from the score, not all of it convincingly placed, and the RTE Concert Orchestra, playing the work without a break, as Wagner originally planned, does show some signs of fatigue. The stalwart chorus are subjected to raspy amplification as the choral Dutchmen in the last act. But even that doesn't detract from the impression that this is one of those productions which genuinely amounts to more than the sum of its parts.
Further performances of Der fliegende Hollander are on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Booking and information at 01-453-5519.
