A terrible curse hangs over him: the infamous seaman known as “the flying Dutchman” can only go ashore every seven years to try to find a wife who, if she is true to him, will release him from his ordeal. If he fails, he is condemned to roam the oceans of the world. Senta, daughter of the sea captain Daland, knows of the Dutchman’s fate and feels that it is her destiny to save him through her love. But can her obsession with this phantom survive when she is faced with the reality? In his opera, included in the canon of “works fit for Bayreuth” in 1901, Richard Wagner portrays a man who despairs of life and society. Although composed in 1841 in Paris, the work did not appear until two years later in Dresden. In his production, director Philipp Stölzl questions the opera’s attitude towards women and follows the plot solely from Senta’s perspective – who is “sold” by her father and expected to give herself up entirely for another man.

In German with German and English surtitles

Introduction to the work 30 minutes before curtain-up

A co-production with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin

Original production by Theater Basel