7, 9, 11, 13 June 2013
ODEON OF HERODES ATTICUS
New production within the framework of the Athens Festival
Starts at 21.00 | 
Ticket sales
Olympia Theatre Box Office
210 3662 100
Greek Festival Box Office
210 3272 000
Ticket Prices
25€, 45€, 55€, 60€, 85€, 100€, Children & Students 15€
The Flying Dutchman, one of Richard Wagner’s most popular operas in the world, is making its debut at the Herod Atticus Theatre in a production directed by the acclaimed Greek opera director Yannis Kokkos, conducted by Lucas Karytinos and with the participation of Greek and foreign soloists of international calibre. The landmark opera of the German Romantic period is the Greek National Opera’s first production for the summer season and marks the company’s first collaboration with Yannis Kokkos.
The Greek National Opera is participating in celebrations for the bicentennial of Richard Wagner’s birth with a production of The Flying Dutchman, an opera that marked the composer’s shift to a new set of values. At the core of the opera is the story of deliverance of one man, the wave-battered and cursed Dutchman through the eternal loyalty pledged by a woman, young Senta.
The Flying Dutchman is considered one of the greatest works of the German opera, a piece in which gripping music of frightening force depicts the power of nature, a dominant theme in the opera, but also of supernatural forces, which are ultimately vanquished by love.
Wagner, a composer who stands alone among his 19th century peers and an emblematic figure of German Romanticism whose life and work had a profound influence on philosophy, the letters and the arts in his as well as in later periods, penned The Flying Dutchman after an adventurous journey from Riga to London in the summer of 1893.
The story is about a sailor, the Dutchman, who swears to Satan that he will sail past a cape in a treacherous storm even if it means having to sail forever more. Satan hears his invocation and as punishment for his arrogance, curses the sailor to wander the seas in his ship in all eternity, reaching only every seven years.
The Dutchman’s curse can only be broken if a woman swears her eternal love to him. This woman is Senta, who seems to have been waiting for the Dutchman to appear. When her oath is questioned, Senta proves that she will remain faithful to the death by sacrificing herself to the waves.
Director's Note
Der fliegende Hollander [The Flying Dutchman] at a glance
The composer / Born in Leipzig in 1813, the same year as Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner stands out among nineteenth-century composers. A significant figure of German Romanticism, his life as well as his oeuvre had a great influence on philosophy, literature and art.
Wagner wrote treatises as well as his own texts for all of his stage works. For him art was not mere entertainment, but had a rather didactic role which, seen in the spirit of Greek tragedy, could play a significant role in his own society. Wagner envisioned and built an “ideal” theatre structure in the countryside, where his music dramas were to be performed away from the luxuries and customs of upcoming bourgeois and high society. The pioneering structure of his libretti, as well as the innovation of his music in terms of harmony, alliteration and leitmotif technique, among others, challenged and
changed the way composers looked at music as a whole. Wagner died in Venice in 1883. His most significant works include Der fliegende Hollander (1843), Tannhauser (1845/61), Lohengrin (1850), Tristan und Isolde (1864), Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (1867), Der Ring des Nibelugnen (1876) and Parsifal (1882).
The work / A romantic opera in three acts, The Flying Dutchman is based on Richard Wagner’s own text, which draws from Heinrich Heine’s satirical novel Aus den Memoiren des Herren von Schnabelewopski [The memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski, 1833] but is also influenced by Wagner’s adventurous sea journey from Riga to London during the summer of 1839. The main character of the plot is a sailor who once swore to Satan that he would sail forever if he had to, in order to sail around a cape in a furious gale. The devil took him at his word and cursed him for his arrogance to roam the seas forever. He will be released of the curse only if when he comes ashore, every seven years, he should find a woman who will swear to be eternally faithful to him. This woman is Senta, who seems to have been anticipating his arrival. When her faith is being questioned she decides to prove that she will be faithful to him until death, by throwing herself into the sea.
Premieres / The Flying Dutchman was premiered at the Konigliches Sachsisches Hoftheater in Dresden, on 2 January 1843. In 3 May 1952 the work was added to the repertory of the Greek National Opera, founded in 1939. It was produced at the Olympia Theatre in a Greek translation by composer Manolis Kalomiris and was conducted by Leonidas Zoras. The staging was by Renato Mordo and the leading roles were sung by Dimitris Efstratiou (Dutchman), Nafsika Galanou-Voutyra (Senta), Antonis Delendas (Erik) and Petros Hoidas (Daland).
