Sunday, November 3, 2013

The Flying Dutchman Sails onto Palace Theater Stage

Stormy seas, ghost ships and gleaming treasures conquer the Palace Theater stage as Richard Wagner’s famous opera Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) sails into Waterbury on Friday, Nov. 15 at 7 pm.

Tickets for the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and Connecticut Lyric Opera co-presentation are $65, $45 and $20 and can be purchased by phone at 203-346-2000, online at www.palacetheaterct.org, or in person at the Box Office, 100 East Main Street in Waterbury.

The legend of The Flying Dutchman, a ghostly ship condemned to wander the oceans forever, has fascinated opera lovers for hundreds of years. Wagner’s enthralling score is illuminated by striking stage imagery that powers a thrilling journey into an unsettling, mythic world where a tormented spirit seeks true love as his only redemption. Originating in seventeenth century nautical folklore, The Flying Dutchman is the tale of a phantom ship, an omen of doom to all who encounter it, captained by a Dutchman cursed to an eternity at sea. From Thomas Moore’s poem On Passing Dead Man’s Island to the Hollywood hit Pirates of the Caribbean, the ghost ship and its captain have haunted books, films, plays and animations for decades.

Wagner based his adaptation on Heinrich Heine's retelling of the myth in a satirical 1834 novel The Memoirs of Mr. von Schnabelewopski (Aus den Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski) in which the Dutchman is permitted on land every seven years to find redemption through a faithful woman’s love. The opera tells the tale threefold: through famous text in the heroine’s ballad, striking stage action and effects, and dramatically shifting soundscapes.

Presented in German with English supertitles, this fully staged co-production by the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and the Connecticut Lyric Opera features an international cast of singers accompanied by a full orchestra conducted by Maestro Adrian Sylveen. This production is perhaps CT Lyric Opera’s grandest to date as the company has grown extensively since its inception 11 years ago, now enlivening stages throughout the state. Audiences are advised to hold on tight for a work whose wind, in conductor Franz Lachner’s words in 1864, “blows out at you wherever you open the score.”

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Lauren Yarger with playwright Alfred Uhry at the Mark Twain House. Photo: Jacques Lamarre)
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