Opera North has been designated Theatre of Sanctuary status and, accordingly, director Annabel Arden reimagines Wagner’s legend of The Flying Dutchman making the protagonist a person seeking asylum rather than a doomed soul chasing redemption through love and sacrifice. Recorded messages from people who have lived experience of seeking refuge precede each of the three acts.
Home Secretary Daland (Clive Bayley) steers the Ship of State (groan) through choppy political waters. He endeavours to calm lanyard-wearing Civil Servants as they panic about the latest immigration statistics. However, Daland never met a bribe he did not like, and when the Dutchman (Robert Hayward) mysteriously arrives and offers riches in return for shelter, Daland does not hesitate to put forward his daughter, Senta (Layla Claire in a stunning debut for Opera North) in marriage.
Senta works in a centre packaging donated clothes for displaced persons and has a morbid fascination with the legend of the Flying Dutchman, whose soul might find salvation through a woman’s faithful love. She is, however, already romantically involved with her father’s protégé, Erik (Edgaras Montvidas) so her interest in the Dutchman gives rise to conflict.
The radical revisions to the opera can be justified as Wagner’s experiences arriving in as Paris a displaced person, after surviving two terrifying storms while he was stowed illegally aboard a merchant ship, may have inspired the original plot. Moreover, in the original German translation, the title has the Dutchman fleeing; rather than flying like a supernatural being.
Yet the production is one that tries to have things all ways. Despite giving the Dutchman a mundane origin, the lengthy overture plays against a projected backdrop of stormy seas over which the character floats like a ghost. The Dutchman’s introduction, as a spectral figure projected onto a screen, is decidedly paranormal. The on-stage nautical imagery tends to reflect the original period of the story rather than the present day, with metal chains forming a screen upon which videos are projected.
As is often the case with radical revisions, eventually the asylum seeker theme is nudged aside by the original text. By the middle of the second act, the storyline moves towards the doomed love affair between Senta and the Dutchman.
Even without the displaced persons theme, this is a sleek, modern production. Joanna Parker’s stage set is a sinister hi-tech modern office with darkly gleaming furnishings. Clive Bayley’s avuncular Home Secretary brings to mind any number of contemporary politicians, enjoying a drink while at a work event and even cutting a quick soft shoe shuffle to celebrate his good fortune. Senta’s sacrifice is symbolised by her accepting donations intended for a displaced person as if she is resigned to sharing her lover’s wandering fate.
As Senta, Layla Claire gives a psychologically valid portrayal of morbid obsession. Already marked as a defiant wild child, wearing denim shorts and tights in contrast to the drab, sack-like uniforms of her workmates, Senta not only sings the legend of the desperate Dutchman, she does so while adopting his weather-beaten style of clothing.
The identical clothing worn by the lovers serves as visual confirmation they are soulmates and, when Senta reclines on a table, she does so in the manner of someone on a sacrificial altar. By contrast, the relationship between Senta and her father’s protégé, Erik, is entirely one-sided. It is hard to believe Senta shares Erik’s passion (as he sings of his love, she studies a portrait of his rival), so there is disappointingly little tension in her choosing the Dutchman.
It is tempting to suggest, if audiences find the revisions too radical they simply close their eyes and listen to the singing, which is of an astonishingly high quality. Layla Claire dominates with soaring vocals, and the full chorus of Opera North cuts loose in a thunderous manner in the closing act as the townsfolk try to stir the Dutchman’s crew from their supernatural slumber.
A radical makeover is matched with superb vocals to make for a memorable, if not entirely successful, version of The Flying Dutchman.