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From an 1876 production - this is how I imagined the opera
would end [image: Wikimedia] |
The story and how it ends
It might seem churlish after being overwhelmed by
this opera full of damnation and redemption, but you have to ask the essential
question: is the Dutchman saved or not? And is Senta saved? It’s not entirely
clear in the libretto, let alone this production.
The story is an amalgam of various sources. The Dutchman, who is actually “fleeing” rather than “flying”, has a pact with the Devil, by which he is allowed to return once every seven years to see if he can find a woman to redeem him from his endless wandering. Everything seems to be going well, in this opera: the Dutchman finds a man (Daland) with a daughter, Senta, and Daland is happy to exchange his daughter for some treasure that the Dutchman offers. She is happy to marry the Dutchman; in fact, she knows all about his plight before even meeting him. She even has his picture in her home.
Nonetheless, the Dutchman expects the worst, even after she has agreed to marry him. This is where things get slightly complicated, and, for me uncertain. According to the script, even if Senta does not sail off with the Dutchman, she is saved from eternal damnation, because she didn’t plight her troth to the Dutchman in church:
You plighted your troth
to me, but not
Before Almighty God:
this saves you!
Just to clarify, the Dutchman then states that those women who break their vow after making it are subject to eternal damnation. But in the same speech (Act 3 Finale) he states:
Learn
the fate from which I save you!
I am
doomed to the most hideous of lots …
From
the curse, a woman alone can free me,
A woman who would be true to me till death.
So that’s clear, then. Her being true to him till
death will result in his redemption. So does she have to die for him to be
saved, or simply declare her love for him? In the end, according to the
libretto, she “flings herself into the sea” and the two of them “rise
transfigured”. I was waiting with anticipation to see how the director of this
production handled that moment, but the actual ending was something of an
anticlimax. It was quite inconsequential – and separate. The Dutchman crawls
away by himself, ignoring Senta, while Senta puts her arms up seeming to
implore heaven for some kind of conclusion, and by a simple coup de theatre, she
disappears -she is surrounded by the
chorus and slips out without anyone seeing, so when the chorus members separate,
she is gone – not, in this production, with him. This doesn’t make much sense
to me – if there is any redemption, it’s not conveyed
Is Senta too passive?
Many productions have worried about this aspect, according to the Overture Opera Guide (2012), Yet it is quite clear this is not simply one human submitting to another. Senta understands the story, and stares repeatedly at the image of the Dutchman hanging on the wall in her home. This is not, then, a response to human behaviour; she seems to have identified herself as the agent by which her sacrifice can bring about redemption. In other words, it’s not about him; it’s what he represents. This appears to be confirmed by the script, and certainly by this production. The Dutchman is marked by his passivity. He makes no effort to seduce or even to appear welcoming. His attitude throughout seems barely concealed weariness and exhaustion. Senta’s willingness to sacrifice herself for his redemption is perfectly self-aware, and part of the world of myth rather than the world of the present-day. In a way, this devotion could be closer to what people do for immigrants. You don’t know them, but you can be compassionate.
This production
As usual, this was a mixed bag. I greatly enjoyed
the set, which make little attempt to show a ship or even anything remotely
resembling it, the first two acts. Act
three was set in a kind of surreal nightclub, which was a surprise.
For the most part, the costumes were great. The Dutchman looked suitably crazed, as if he had just arrived from another world. He was dressed in a floor-length grey greatcoat and matching coloured hat that made him resemble a hippie who has been without sleep for six weeks. However, that excellence was dissipated somewhat. Senta, when she sings her big ballad, puts on an equivalent coat and hat, so stressing that she belonged in the Dutchman’s world, but when they come to sing an aria together, they looked like his and hers versions of the same outfit, which was cute, almost cosy, but not, I suspect, quite the intended effect.
I enjoyed the movement of the chorus. They grouped to resemble the movement of a ship, then, in Act 3, in the nightclub, they danced with a crazed stylized set of gestures, that collectively looked manic but which communicated the party-like atmosphere that the story intended, and from which Senta and the Dutchman were clearly excluded.
The world of myth and
the bourgeois world
It seems rather strange to have Wagner depicting
present-day reality, but that is what seems to be the case with Daland and the
sailors around him. There is a terrific contrast between the comfortable bourgeois
world of Daland, Erik, and the chorus, compared with the wild, other-wordly
(but threatening rather than pleasant) world of the Dutchman. The music
switches powerfully from one to the other, most notably when Senta sings her
ballad, in Act 1, and when the chorus taunt the newly wed couple in Act 3,
until the couple themselves arrive, and the atmosphere changes utterly.
Disastrously, this production once or twice mixes
up the two incorrectly. Daland is seduced by the prospect of a payment by the
Dutchman in return for marrying his daughter. In this production, he takes a
necklace that the Dutchman has given him, and places it on Senta, who then puts
it in her pocket! It’s as if she accepts payment for the marriage, which is
completely at odds with the opera and with her action, unconnected with money.
Sexual vs fairytale love
This opera straddles the world of myth and bourgeois
reality quite effectively. However, the production makes some egregious errors.
Senta’s love for the Dutchman is not sexual, at least, not in the way shown
here. Senta wears hot pants (admittedly, she has the figure for it) but writhes
on the table in front of him orgiastically, as if she is offering herself for
one night, rather than for a lifetime.
Supporting displaced
people
I am all in favour of trying to link art to
contemporary issues. It is wholly commendable that Opera North makes a stand on
behalf of displaced people, and you can see the link between the wild sea of
the story and the terrible tales of people trying to cross the Channel by boat.
So in principle I was happy that each act was introduced by a presumably
autobiographical quote from a would-be immigrant to the UK. Unfortunately, the
character on stage, who appears to be the personification of the person whose
voice we hear, is clearly white, while the voice sounds African. This gesture
doesn’t work.
At the start of the opera, someone from Opera North describes the displaced people as “our collaborators” in the programme “who have shared their life experiences”. I can see the link between crossing the sea and the Dutchman; but it should have been possible to have involved some of the displaced people to participate in the production in some way, rather than being recorded and then mimed by one of the cast. Art exhibitions are doing this kind of community engagement all the time, e.g. getting local people to participate in an collective project such as a tapestry.
I didn’t grasp, and I suspect that many people in the audience had similar problems, understanding why the opera opens with what appears to be a group of financial traders. According to the programme, they officials in the UK Home Office dealing with displaced people. According to this reading, therefore, the Dutchman is an immigrant seeking refuge - but I don’t think the Dutchman strikes me as a displaced would-be immigrant .
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