Metropolitan Opera’s “Flying Dutchman” in cinemas

19 SEPT 2020: MET IM KINO brings François Girard’s production of Wagner’s thrilling opera into German and Austrian cinemas on 19+20 September.

Due to the coronavirus-related closure of The Metropolitan Opera, the live in HD transmission of Wagner’s first great operatic masterpiece “The Flying Dutchman” in spring could not take place as planned. Luckily, the dress rehearsal was recorded and can be watched by opera lovers in Germany and Austria on 19+20 September.

Celebrated French-Canadian director François Girard, whose revelatory 2013 take on “Parsifal” set the recent Met standard for Wagner stagings, presents his vision of “The Flying Dutchman”. The opera tells of a sailor condemned to sail the seas for eternity unless he can find a woman willing to be faithful to him until death. He finds such a woman in the heroine, Senta, who is obsessed by a portrait of the Dutchman hanging in her home. In Girard’s interpretation, the focus of the opera is more on Senta than on the Dutchman himself: “It's the story of a girl who is looking at a painting so intensely that it comes to life and will swallow her into death.”, he explains.

Anja Kampe, one of the leading Wagner sopranos in Europe, dominates the stage as Senta: “It’s good to finally have her here!” exclaimed the New York Times after the first performance. Bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin is the Dutchman, Valery Gergiev conducts.

Original title Der Fliegende Holländer
Composer Richard Wagner
Soloist Evgeny Nikitin
Soloist Anja Kampe
Conductor Valery Gergiev
Director François Girard