Conductor, Oksana Lyniv; Director, Dmitri Tcherniakov; Stage design, Dmitri Tcherniakov; Costumes, Elena Zaytseva; Lighting, Gleb Filshtinsk; Dramaturgy; Tatiana Werestchagina: Daland, Georg Zeppenfeld; Senta, Elisabeth Teige; Erik, Eric Cutler; Mary, Nadine Weissmann; Der Steuermann, Attilio Glaser; Der Holländer, Thomas J. Mayer, Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra
I reviewed this earlier in the year, in late March while sitting at home with Covid, having very much enjoyed the video made of last year’s new production. It’s now revived for 2022 but with Asmik Gregorian replaced by Elizabeth Teige (Ms Gregorian is currently apparently singing sensationally in Salburg) and John Lundgren, who was scheduled to reprise his performance, replaced by Tomas J Mayer after he called off through ill health. I hadn’t originally seen this was on in one of the ‘spare’ Ring days -I was able to book on line a (not very good) 3rd row aeat at the back of the Loge – as it happened the first seat in the first row was unoccupied as the lights dimmed so the attendant was happy for me to sit there, and it made a big difference to the visuals and probably sound too
Seeing it live in the Festspielhaus, I was less than impressed by Tcherniakov’s concept of the local man returning to his grim port town to take revenge on the society that killed his mother, who had an affair with Daland and then killed herself when she was rejected. While the concept of Senta’s obsession remains basically untouched, and Daland can be as greedy and horrible as he is seen to be in any conventional production, the concept of the Dutchman as revenger does not really make much sense of what the Dutchman sometimes has to say – e.g “ My doom is eternal!……..Never shall I find the redemption I seek on land! ……..Death never comes! This is the dread sentence of damnation. I ask thee, blessed angel from heaven who won for me the terms for my absolution: was I the unhappy butt of thy mockery when thou didst show me the way of release? Vain hope! Dread, empty delusion! Constant faith on earth is a thing of the past” . For many people this kind of language does not relate to their experience and is pretty meaningless. Surely the need is for the director is to ask – OK, so what would words like redemption, eternity, hell, faith etc mean in a modern context. The trappings of the sea and ghost ships aren’t particularly important, as Tcherniakov’s concept shows, to getting at the work’s inner meaning but he doesn’t reinterpret the essential problem of the Dutchman as anything other than revenge. There is also within the piece something about the Outsider – the artist as Outsider but maybe anyone as outsider. The riot in Act 3 Scene 1 may relate to this a bit in Tcherniakov’s work, as may the shooting of the Dutchman by Mary (though exactly why this happens is totally unclear ) but it’s not really built upon.
So, really, yet another piece of muddled directoral thinking redeemed (that word again) by some magnificent performances. Elisabeth Teige was a stunning Senta – a thrilling big voice and able to convey the same sort of edgy teenager-iness as Ms Gregorian. Tomas J Mayer, not someone I’ve come across before, was an excellent Dutchman, with much less barking and more mellifluous singing than you’d get with some (he is also a Wotan in various houses’ Ring cycles). It’s also noteworthy that he took over only 3 weeks before the first performance from John Lundgren, who cancelled all performances in this summer’s Bayreuth Festival ‘due to the severity of personal problems. Georg Zeppenfeld was as good as he’s been in everything else I have seen him do live. The wonderful Chorus sounded as good as ever – and they have a lot to do in this opera. And Oksana Lyniv made the orchestra fizz and boil in a way that it just hasn’t with this year’s Ring (so far). The pictures below are in the main of last year’s performances
John's musical journey 