The Flying Dutchman

“Dear God, make me pious / for I come from hell,“ reads a scene heading in Heiner Müller’s grotesque fairy tale The Life of Gundling Friedrich of Prussia . But it could just as easily refer to the Flying Dutchman, who in Wagner’s early opera was condemned by Satan himself to sail restlessly across the world’s oceans. Every seven years he is allowed ashore to woo a woman who will remain faithful to him until death. From the hell of eternal recurrence, his path leads him into the icy waters of selfish calculation, where a person is worth only as much as they contribute. The title role in Calixto Bieito’s dark interpretation of Wagner is played by Derek Welton, an internationally acclaimed bass-baritone from Australia. Nicholas Carter conducts the Staatsorchester in his third production of the season.