Unlock the publisher's digest free
Roula Khalaf, editor -in -chief of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
In July 1839, Wagner, his wife Minna and his dog thief traveled by boat in southeast Norway when a violent storm forced them to take refuge. The episode lingered in the mind of the composer and had to stimulate inspiration for his opera Flying Dutchman.
Now the opera has returned home. Registered during concert shows by the Orchestra and the refrain of the Norwegian National Opera under its musical director, Edward Gardner, it is promoted as a star vehicle from Lise Davidsen, the exceptional soprano Wagner of its generation.
The role of Senta is not the obvious choice for her. Davidsen did not sing him on stage and said that the two concerts in Oslo would be his “first and last” in the role, but that does not prevent him from roaring in the opera as a gale of the North Sea. Powerful, intrepid, singing mainly with vocal beauty, it is a force with which to count.
The singers are at the forefront of the balance of the recording. Gerald Finley makes a Dutch with a sweet grain, impeccable in his musicality and the clarity of his words, and always alive with meaning. Stanislas de Barbeyrac is an Erik and Brindley Sherratt romantic, a firm daland, but less charismatic than some. Anna Kissjudit is a sound and eirik grøtvedt, a beautiful director.
These are perhaps concert performances, but they lack nothing in the theater thanks to the grip of Gardner on rhythm and tension. Add a vigorous contribution of the choir and a very decent orchestral game and there is no reason to hold back.
★★★★ ☆
'Wagner: The Flying Dutch' is published by Decca
