Latest news with #TheFlyingDutchman
Telegraph
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Flying Dutchman, Opera Holland Park: Wagner's elemental tale is given a progressive spin
Pity Wagner's heroines, always having to save some errant man from hell or a guilty conscience. In his early masterpiece The Flying Dutchman, the male hero is a sailor, unwise enough to curse the Almighty when He sends him an unfavourable wind. And so he's doomed to sail the seas until a good woman saves him and sacrifices herself in the process. It's 19 th -century patriarchy on steroids, as Julia Burbach's intelligent new production for OHP makes abundantly clear. As is the fashion nowadays, the opera's essential theme is presented before the curtain officially opens, during Wagner's overture. A troop of pining blonde girls in nighties and macs drifts into Naomi Dawson's cleverly designed set, roaming up the narrow and alarmingly tilted platform behind the orchestra on which is the modest bric-a-brac of the heroine Senta's home – bed, table, hard chair. They continue around the orchestra to what seems like a beach at the front of the stage. They are the Eternal Feminine, anxiously looking for a man to rescue. Soon uncanny masked figures appear, premonitions of the supernatural Dutchman's ghostly crew. It's this elemental world of the sea the production stresses, while the solid bourgeois world of Senta's sailor father Daland – who's keen to marry Senta off to the rich, roving Dutchman – is barely hinted at. Senta, touchingly played by Eleanor Dennis, is the very submissive centre amidst the swirling sailor activity and orchestral din, singing of her obsession with a picture of the Dutchman in a voice of such pearly delicacy you could hardly hear it. Her father Daland is somewhat blandly characterized by Robert Winslade Anderson, and the Dutchman played by Paul Carey Johnson is frankly a bit wooden and formal when he first meets Senta. One felt his suffering but not his uncanny power. All this meant the production – suggestive though it is of the opera's underlying themes, and buoyed by sensitive playing from the City of London Sinfonia under conductor Peter Selwyn – needed a dramatic shot in the arm. That was delivered not a moment too soon by Neal Cooper as Senta's betrothed Erik. His aria where he laments Senta's obsession with the Dutchman was truly agonised. He paced about like a tormented caged bear, his voice cracking with emotion. Senta, who until that point had seemed rather milk-and-water, her annoyance with her teasing friends a bit too schoolgirls-larking-in-the-dormitory, suddenly discovered her true stature. In the final scenes the opera really caught fire. The sailors' terrified discovery of the cursed Dutchman's ship was a superb swirl of movement, lit with lurid effectiveness as if from the pit of hell by Robert Price. In the final scene, where Senta promises to go with the Dutchman to the ends of earth, Eleanor Dennis unleashed a vocal power one had never suspected. The orchestral din was thrilling, as were the chorus's terrified outbursts. Nature obligingly lent a hand, rattling the walls of Opera Holland Park's canvas venue with a strong wind. So a wonderful elemental ending, which really got to the heart of Wagner's drama. It's just a shame the production took a while to reach it.
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Flying Dutchman review – terrific cast and hurtling momentum in OHP's first ever Wagner
Opera Holland Park opens this year's season with a new production of The Flying Dutchman, directed by Julia Burbach and conducted by Peter Selwyn. The company's first ever Wagner staging, it aims high and doesn't always succeed, though the best of it, both musically and theatrically, is unquestionably impressive. Burbach essentially stages it as a psychological horror story (which it is), making Eleanor Dennis's Senta the central protagonist rather than Paul Carey Jones's charismatic Dutchman, and heightening the opera's sense of the uncanny by blurring the lines between reality and illusion as she dreams of escaping the normative confines of the world around her. Using both auditorium and stage for her setting, Burbach hauls us into Senta's vivid imagination. Holland Park theatre's tarpaulin roof has been extended to form the backdrop for the vertiginous platforms of Naomi Dawson's set, so we seem to be sitting beneath the unfurling sails of some monstrous ship ourselves. Sailors haul ropes through the aisles and doss down on staircases, while ghostly, faceless figures move wraith-like among the audience. Not all of it works. Burbach is strong on Senta's increasing disquiet at the erratic behaviour of Neal Cooper's Erik, whose bristling resentment marks him out as potentially abusive. Yet her relationship with her equally dangerous father Daland (Robert Winslade Anderson), who would gladly sell her to the Dutchman for the latter's wealth, is under-characterised and doesn't hit home as much as it should. During the overture, Burbach confusingly and unnecessarily fills both stage and auditorium with women who may be Senta's predecessors in trying to save the Dutchman's soul. And the ending, deliberately enigmatic as to what redemption might consist of, or indeed whether it is even possible, is anticlimactic after what has gone before. A couple of tweaks to the score are odd – a choral refrain from Senta's ballad transferred to the close of Act I, and Daland's crew and the Norwegian women are missing from the final scene. But there are some terrific performances. Dennis, radiant in tone, is outstanding and entirely convincing as a restless visionary in the grip of forces beyond reason. Carey Jones captures the Dutchman's spiritual and moral anguish with singing of great emotional depth and verbal subtlety. Cooper makes a fiercely intense Erik, less lyrical than some, which works well with Burbach's view of the character. Winslade Anderson, meanwhile, sounds suave, tellingly masking ambition behind glibness. Conducting a reduced orchestration by Tony Burke, Selwyn took time to settle on opening night, though the gathering tensions and hurtling momentum of the final two acts were superbly done. There was fine playing from the City of London Sinfonia, and the Opera Holland Park Chorus, sensational throughout, have done little finer. Until 14 June
Daily Mail
08-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Paul Vander Haar: Footy legend who can't walk more than a few metres reveals the bizarre way he keeps breaking his ribs as he opens up about horrible toll the game has taken on him
Essendon Bombers premiership hero Paul Vander Haar has revealed injuries he suffered during his stellar AFL career have left him a broken man as he opened up about the shocking toll the sport has had on him. The 67-year-old, celebrated for his courage, high-flying marks and huge contribution to Essendon's 1984 and 1985 premierships, has spoken candidly about his physical and mental struggles since retiring. Vander Haar, known as The Flying Dutchman during his playing days, suffers from chronic back pain which has left him unable to walk much further than a couple of metres for the last 18 months. He also suffers from random drops in blood pressure that have seen him black out and collapse - with one of those episodes ending with him waking up in hospital with a broken leg. 'I've had a hip replacement and seven operations on my right knee and it's still not good,' he told News Corp. 'I've had four pass-outs, where I've just been walking along or just sitting down and all of a sudden I just pass out and end up in hospital. 'It's just a loss of blood where your blood pressure drops. I'll just be sitting there and all of a sudden I'll fall off the chair. 'The last one I had, I'd just started walking up the driveway and passed out and broke my femur, the main part of the leg just under the hip. I was on crutches for six or seven months. 'My whole body aches. I wake up every day and it feels like I've played 10 games of footy in a row and I can hardly move. 'I've had a really bad back and I keep breaking ribs just leaning over the cabin of my ute, grabbing my toolbox. 'I'm trying different medications, but just getting sick of going to the hospitals and doctors and getting referrals and all that crap.' Vander Haar admitted that he is 'struggling' with his mental health too, acknowledging that he received plenty of head trauma during his footy career. 'I had heaps of them (concussions) over the years,' he said. 'I copped plenty, but you kept going not realising what the consequences were.' The Bombers great also suffers from random drops in blood pressure that have seen him collapse several times Vander Haar, and two former teammates - Simon Madden and Terry Daniher - are speaking out to back the FifthQtr Foundation, a new not-for-profit group that helps ex footy players. The footy legend says the AFL Players' Association and AFL needs to step up and do more for players who have retired. 'It's not the money that I'm after, I'm just trying to find somebody who can come up with some solutions,' he said. 'I just want to find a remedy. I'm just getting sick of it.'
Gulf Today
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Soprano Lise Davidsen to release new opera recording
'Davidsen Goes out with a Bang,' read the headline in Broadway World's review of the Metropolitan Opera revival of Beethoven's 'Fidelio.' And indeed Lise Davidsen is in a sense 'going out.' After she gives her final performance as the wife who disguises herself as a man to save her husband, she'll head home to Norway to prepare for a new role — as the mother of twins. But the soprano's fans will also have something new to savour while she's on maternity leave. Decca is releasing a recording of Wagner's 'Der Fliegende Holländer' ('The Flying Dutchman'), an opera she had never sung before and may never do again. The role of Senta, the sea captain's daughter who is obsessed with rescuing the Dutchman from eternal damnation, is one that Davidsen said she had been 'asked to do for almost 10 years,' but always turned down because 'I didn't feel ready.' That might seem surprising since the role is relatively short and is often grouped with other Wagnerian roles she has already sung, like Elisabeth in 'Tannhäuser' or Sieglinde in 'Die Walküre.' But the tessitura of the role — the amount of time the voice spends in a particular range — 'was difficult for me six or seven years ago,' she said. 'It lies in a tricky place and is surprisingly dramatic in the high range. For me, it was a little bit too high for too long a time.' What changed her mind, she said, was mastering the title role of Richard Strauss's 'Salome,' another opera that requires the soprano to sing near the top of her range much of the time. She performed that to great acclaim last year at the Paris Opera. Added incentives to record Senta came from the team Decca assembled and the fact that it was taped in two live performances at the Oslo Opera House. Edward Gardner, music director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, was the conductor, and the role of the Dutchman was sung by baritone Gerald Finley, a singer she has long admired. In their great second-act duet, Davidsen said that when Finley sang his opening phrases in an otherworldly hush, 'It just gave me goosebumps because his sound is so beautiful. It's so inspiring and clear. 'I wanted to take his voice and put it in my pocket and have it with me for a sad day.' Davidsen matches him, scaling back her enormous voice to sing with aching purity, then unleashing a torrent of sound for the climaxes. The recording, also featuring bass Brindley Sharratt as Senta's father Daland, and tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac as her hapless suitor Erik, will be released April 18. Now that the project is behind her she said she has no plans to sing the role on stage. 'I can never say never,' she said, 'and maybe in five years something changes. But for now there's a lot of other roles I have coming.' Chief among those are the two pinnacles of the Wagnerian repertory for dramatic soprano, Isolde in 'Tristan und Isolde,' and Brünnhilde in the 'Ring' cycle. Both have been announced for upcoming productions at the Met directed by Yuval Sharon with the Isolde in just a year from now. In addition she is determined to keep exploring the Italian repertory. Already she has scored success in two major Verdi roles: Elisabetta in 'Don Carlo' and Leonora in 'La Forza del Destino.' A very different Verdi role she's eager to add is the murderous Lady Macbeth in 'Macbeth.' She will open the Met's 2026-27 season in a new production of the work. 'I just love that woman,' she said. 'There's something so loco in her, and I'm anxious to see where I can go with it. The other ladies are pure, but she's on a different planet.' Davidsen's twins are due in June, and she plans to extend her leave from singing for the rest of 2025. 'In America they think that's a very long leave,' she said, 'but back home they think it's very short.' Associated Press
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen to release new opera recording while awaiting birth of twins
NEW YORK (AP) — 'Davidsen Goes out with a Bang,' read the headline in Broadway World's review of the Metropolitan Opera revival of Beethoven's 'Fidelio.' And indeed Lise Davidsen is in a sense 'going out.' After she gives her final performance as the wife who disguises herself as a man to save her husband, she'll head home to Norway to prepare for a new role — as the mother of twins. But the soprano's fans will also have something new to savor while she's on maternity leave. Decca is releasing a recording of Wagner's 'Der Fliegende Holländer' ('The Flying Dutchman'), an opera she had never sung before and may never do again. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. What convinced Davidsen to record 'The Flying Dutchman' The role of Senta, the sea captain's daughter who is obsessed with rescuing the Dutchman from eternal damnation, is one that Davidsen said she had been 'asked to do for almost 10 years,' but always turned down because 'I didn't feel ready.' That might seem surprising since the role is relatively short and is often grouped with other Wagnerian roles she has already sung, like Elisabeth in "Tannhäuser' or Sieglinde in 'Die Walküre.' But the tessitura of the role — the amount of time the voice spends in a particular range — 'was difficult for me six or seven years ago,' she said. 'It lies in a tricky place and is surprisingly dramatic in the high range. For me, it was a little bit too high for too long a time.' What changed her mind, she said, was mastering the title role of Richard Strauss's 'Salome,' another opera that requires the soprano to sing near the top of her range much of the time. She performed that to great acclaim last year at the Paris Opera. Added incentives to record Senta came from the team Decca assembled and the fact that it was taped in two live performances at the Oslo Opera House. Edward Gardner, music director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, was the conductor, and the role of the Dutchman was sung by baritone Gerald Finley, a singer she has long admired. In their great second-act duet, Davidsen said that when Finley sang his opening phrases in an otherworldly hush, 'It just gave me goosebumps because his sound is so beautiful. It's so inspiring and clear. 'I wanted to take his voice and put it in my pocket and have it with me for a sad day.' Davidsen matches him, scaling back her enormous voice to sing with aching purity, then unleashing a torrent of sound for the climaxes. The recording, also featuring bass Brindley Sharratt as Senta's father Daland, and tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac as her hapless suitor Erik, will be released April 18. Now that the project is behind her she said she has no plans to sing the role on stage. 'I can never say never,' she said, 'and maybe in five years something changes. But for now there's a lot of other roles I have coming.' What's next for Davidsen onstage Chief among those are the two pinnacles of the Wagnerian repertory for dramatic soprano, Isolde in 'Tristan und Isolde,' and Brünnhilde in the 'Ring' cycle. Both have been announced for upcoming productions at the Met directed by Yuval Sharon with the Isolde in just a year from now. In addition she is determined to keep exploring the Italian repertory. Already she has scored success in two major Verdi roles: Elisabetta in 'Don Carlo' A very different Verdi role she's eager to add is the murderous Lady Macbeth in 'Macbeth.' She will open the Met's 2026-27 season in a new production of the work. 'I just love that woman,' she said. 'There's something so loco in her, and I'm anxious to see where I can go with it. The other ladies are pure, but she's on a different planet.' Davidsen's twins are due in June, and she plans to extend her leave from singing for the rest of 2025. 'In America they think that's a very long leave,' she said, 'but back home they think it's very short.' Once she does return, she'll be doing fewer concert tours that require quickly jumping from city to city. 'The back and forth, here and there, I don't want to do it,' she said. 'The good thing with new opera productions is we can all be here together,' she said. Between rehearsals and performances, a new production typically allows for at least a two-month stay in one place. Meanwhile, the final 'Fidelio' on Saturday afternoon will be broadcast live in HD to movie theaters worldwide. Susanna Mälkki conducts a cast that includes tenor David Butt Philip as the unjustly imprisoned Florestan; bass Rene Papé as the jailer Rocco, soprano Ying Fang as his daughter Marzelline, and baritone Tomasz Konieczny as the villainous Don Pizarro.
