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Overture to The Flying Dutchman
Richard Wagner

[Wilhelm] Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig and died in Venice on February 13, 1883. His early operas, including the Flying Dutchman, represented the high point of German Romantic Opera. His later operas struck out on new paths, setting the course for all opera of the later nineteenth century and beyond. The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer) was first performed in Dresden on January 2, 1843. Wagner twice revised the overture, in 1852, and again in 1860. It is the final version that is usually performed. It is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes (including English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, and strings.


The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer) has the distinction of being the earliest of Wagner’s operas to have entered into the regular repertory of opera houses. Performances of an earlier opera, Rienzi (1840), are rare. Even rarer are performances of his earliest operas, Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot, and his purely instrumental works. The origins of the plot for the Flying Dutchman lie in legend. The idea of a cursed sailor who must wander the oceans for eternity is one manifestation of the conceit of the “Wandering Jew.” The Faustian story, as developed by Wagner, gives the Dutchman opportunity for redemption by allowing him come ashore once every seven years so that he may seek a woman who will remain true to him until death. Should he find her, he would be released from his bargain with Satan and find salvation. Senta, the daughter of a Norwegian seafarer, proves to be that woman, but only after she proves her faithfulness by throwing herself into the ocean.


Wagner developed the story into a prose outline during his onerous journeyman years in Paris. Financial exigencies forced him to sell his scenario for 500 francs in July of 1841, but upon his repatriation in German soil (Dresden), he fulfilled his desire to write his own opera on the legend of the Flying Dutchman by the end of November of that same year. The opera received its premiere in Dresden on January 2, 1843, but closed after only four performances. The opera owes much to the model of Wagner’s predecessor at the Saxon Court Opera, Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), whose opera, Der Freischütz (1821), deals with many of the same themes as Wagner’s. Indeed, the Overture to the Flying Dutchman, with its exciting coda, would be unimaginable without Weber’s model. Wagner wrote an “Explanatory Program” for the Overture to the Flying Dutchman in Zurich in 1853, which I summarize here for sake of length. To paraphrase one critic, the spray of the ocean’s waves emanate from every page of the opera’s score. Those familiar with Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave) will immediately recognize Wagner’s indebtedness. The overture (as well as the opera itself) centers on the haunting music of a ballad sung by Senta in Act II, in which she narrates the Dutchman’s story and reveals that she wishes to be the agent of his salvation. The overture, cast in traditional sonata form, begins with the hollow and open sound of a perfect fifth (the pitches D and A)—a sonority that Wagner took from the first movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. This prepares the way for a thrilling horn call associated with the Dutchman and his ship. The oboe and English horn then play the tune of Senta’s ballad. The main body of the overture is based upon the brooding Dutchman’s monologue from Act I, alternating with snatches of Senta’s ballad and more cheerful music associated with the Norwegian sailors. The exiting coda in D major, again taken almost directly from Senta’s ballad, represents her resolve to redeem the Dutchman from his dreaded curse. The strains of the ballad and an apotheosis of the Dutchman’s horn call bring the music to a satisfying conclusion.


Notes by David B. Levy © 2006

Overture to The Flying Dutchman
Richard Wagner

[Wilhelm] Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig and died in Venice on February 13, 1883. His early operas, including the Flying Dutchman, represented the high point of German Romantic Opera. His later operas struck out on new paths, setting the course for all opera of the later nineteenth century and beyond. The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer) was first performed in Dresden on January 2, 1843. Wagner twice revised the overture, in 1852, and again in 1860. It is the final version that is usually performed. It is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes (including English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, and strings.


The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer) has the distinction of being the earliest of Wagner’s operas to have entered into the regular repertory of opera houses. Performances of an earlier opera, Rienzi (1840), are rare. Even rarer are performances of his earliest operas, Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot, and his purely instrumental works. The origins of the plot for the Flying Dutchman lie in legend. The idea of a cursed sailor who must wander the oceans for eternity is one manifestation of the conceit of the “Wandering Jew.” The Faustian story, as developed by Wagner, gives the Dutchman opportunity for redemption by allowing him come ashore once every seven years so that he may seek a woman who will remain true to him until death. Should he find her, he would be released from his bargain with Satan and find salvation. Senta, the daughter of a Norwegian seafarer, proves to be that woman, but only after she proves her faithfulness by throwing herself into the ocean.


Wagner developed the story into a prose outline during his onerous journeyman years in Paris. Financial exigencies forced him to sell his scenario for 500 francs in July of 1841, but upon his repatriation in German soil (Dresden), he fulfilled his desire to write his own opera on the legend of the Flying Dutchman by the end of November of that same year. The opera received its premiere in Dresden on January 2, 1843, but closed after only four performances. The opera owes much to the model of Wagner’s predecessor at the Saxon Court Opera, Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), whose opera, Der Freischütz (1821), deals with many of the same themes as Wagner’s. Indeed, the Overture to the Flying Dutchman, with its exciting coda, would be unimaginable without Weber’s model. Wagner wrote an “Explanatory Program” for the Overture to the Flying Dutchman in Zurich in 1853, which I summarize here for sake of length. To paraphrase one critic, the spray of the ocean’s waves emanate from every page of the opera’s score. Those familiar with Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave) will immediately recognize Wagner’s indebtedness. The overture (as well as the opera itself) centers on the haunting music of a ballad sung by Senta in Act II, in which she narrates the Dutchman’s story and reveals that she wishes to be the agent of his salvation. The overture, cast in traditional sonata form, begins with the hollow and open sound of a perfect fifth (the pitches D and A)—a sonority that Wagner took from the first movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. This prepares the way for a thrilling horn call associated with the Dutchman and his ship. The oboe and English horn then play the tune of Senta’s ballad. The main body of the overture is based upon the brooding Dutchman’s monologue from Act I, alternating with snatches of Senta’s ballad and more cheerful music associated with the Norwegian sailors. The exiting coda in D major, again taken almost directly from Senta’s ballad, represents her resolve to redeem the Dutchman from his dreaded curse. The strains of the ballad and an apotheosis of the Dutchman’s horn call bring the music to a satisfying conclusion.


Notes by David B. Levy © 2006