UK Edition
Review
Der Fliegende Holländer review, Longborough Festival Opera: a production that really flies
The salt spray is lashing, the heavens are thundering and the waves churning as Anthony Negus launches his orchestra thrillingly into the overture to Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman). The pitch and toss continues as he steers Wagner’s most thrillingly immediate drama through to its redemptive climax, with pauses kept tensely pregnant and the spookiness ghoulishly vivid.
But it’s not all horror on the high-seas: Negus gives the score’s broader melodies full lyrical measure, and the rougher folk-tunes glow with simple charm too. This is conducting born of mature musical understanding, and the festival’s orchestra responds with gusto.
Nothing about this opera is easy to execute, and it’s greatly to Longborough’s credit that on limited resources it has curated a performance as strong as this one. Thomas Guthrie’s production is one of the best I have seen at this address, stylised without being gimmicky.
Against a backdrop of a livid and stormy sky (beautifully painted and lit by Ruth Paton and Ben Ormerod), the stage is kept bare of all but the most basic props. A row of tiny weatherboard houses represents the port, where the girls mend nets rather than spin; the ghost ship and its treasures are left to our imagination. More nuanced direction of the dialogues would have created deeper psychological context.
The New Zealander soprano Kirstin Sharpin is Senta, a role horribly difficult to sing. She responded very well indeed to the brutal challenge: hers is a voice fit for heavy duty, and she gives her obsessive ballad all the hysterical intensity it requires, as well as scaling the giddier heights of Act 3 fair and square.
As the titular object of her devotion, Simon Thorpe is less assured – he sounded particularly uncomfortable in the upper reaches of his Act I monologue “Die Frist ist um” – but he had all the right ideas, both vocally and dramatically. Staunch Richard Wiegold was a gruff, bluff Daland and an ailing Jonathan Stoughton made a sympathetic Erik; Carolyn Dobbin and William Wallace also deserve praise for excellent contributions as bustling Mary and somnolent Steersman.
The chorus was so energised and engaging that it made me rather regret that Longborough isn’t now turning its Wagnerian attentions to Meistersinger; instead, under the incoming artistic director Polly Graham, there will be a return to the Ring, spread over four years – my guess is that Kirstin Sharpin has been pencilled in for Brünnhilde.
Der Fliegende Hollander is showing until June 13. For tickets, call 01451 830292 or visit lfo.org.uk