Sunday Classics: In "The Flying Dutchman" Wagner shows there's more than one way to get from Act I to Act II and from Act II to Act III

by Ken

In our earlier post about Wagner's Flying Dutchman we heard the Norwegian sea captain Daland return home from a perilous voyage bringing a guest, none other than the Flying Dutchman to meet (and hopefully entrance) his daughter, Senta. Then we left the two potential lovers alone for their long scene, and I would have liked to return for the end of Act II, as Daland returns. Here is that little fragment.

DALAND: Forgive me! My people will stay outside no longer;
each time we return home you know there is a feast.
I would enhance it. Therefore I come to ask
if it can be combined with a betrothal.
[To the DUTCHMAN]: I think you've wooed her to your heart's content!
[to SENTA]: Senta, my child, do you too consent?
SENTA [with solemn resolution]:
Here is my hand! And without regret
I plight my troth till death!
DUTCHMAN: She gives her hand! Powers of hell,
through her troth I defy you!
DALAND: You shall not regret this union!
To the feast! Today let all rejoice!

Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Daland; Gwyneth Jones (s), Senta; Thomas Stewart (b), Dutchman; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live, 1971

Kurt Moll (bs), Daland; Dunja Vejzovic (s), Senta; José van Dam (bs-b), Dutchman; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. EMI, recorded 1981-83


TRANSFORMATIONS

In Friday's preview we heard the Sailors' Chorus that opens Act III. Now we're going to hear two ways that Wagner put Acts II and III together. Originally he imagined the opera's three acts running together; later he separated them by repeating orchestral material at the ends and beginnings of the interior acts.

As we've heard on numerous previous occasions, one of Wagner's special talents was musically joining wildly different scenes -- different in physical setting, characters deployed, and subject matter. That's well displayed in the "joined" version. My own preference is for the separated version, in part because I think playing the three acts without intermission unnecessarily burdens both the performers and the audience, but also because far from being bothered by the repetition of the musical materials, I love it!

Note that in the two "joined" clips I've gone back to the end of the Dutchman-Senta scene, to give you a little flavor of the scene Daland is interrupting, but also so you can hear the tune that Senta sings at the start of those clips, which becomes important in the inter-act orchestral material.

The Flying Dutchman: Act II end; Act III beginning, Sailors' Chorus and Dance

[SENTA: What is this power I feel within me?
What enchantment is locked in my bosom?
Almighty God, let this which elevates me
be the strength of fidelity.
DUTCHMAN: Star of misfortune, you shall wane;
light of hope, shine anew!
Ye angels, who once forsook me,
now strengthen her heart and keep her true!]
DALAND: Forgive me! My people will stay outside no longer;
each time we return home you know there is a feast.
I would enhance it. Therefore I come to ask
if it can be combined with a betrothal.
[To the DUTCHMAN]: I think you've wooed her to your heart's content!
[to SENTA]: Senta, my child, do you too consent?
SENTA [with solemn resolution]:
Here is my hand! And without regret
I plight my troth till death!
DUTCHMAN: She gives her hand! Powers of hell,
through her troth I defy you!
DALAND: You shall not regret this union!
To the feast! Today let all rejoice!

ACT III

A bay with a rocky shore. DALAND's house to one side in the foreground. The background is occupied by two ships, DALAND's and the DUTCHMAN's, lying fairly close together. The Norwegian ship is lit up; its sailors are on deck, making merry.

SAILORS [drinking]: Steersman! Leave the watch!
Steersman! Here with us!
Ho! Hey! Hey! Ha!
Hoist the sail! Drop anchor!
Steersman! Here!
Fearing neither wind nor dangerous shore
today will be right merry!
Each one has his sweetheart on land.
Splendid tobacco and good brandy wine!
Hussassa hey!
Crag and storm out there --
Yollolo hey! --
we laugh at!
Hussassa hey!
Furl sail! Anchor fast! Crag and storm we laugh at!
Steersman, here! Drink with us!
Hey! Hussa hey! Hallo hey!
[They dance on the deck, accompanying the downbeat of each bar with a heavy stamp of the feet. The GIRLS arrive with baskets full of food and drink.]

Acts II and III separated

Josef Greindl (bs), Daland; Annelies Kupper (s), Senta; Josef Metternich (b), Dutchman; RIAS Chamber Chorus, RIAS Sympony Orchestra (Berlin), Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded 1952

Martti Talvela (bs), Daland; Anja Silja (s), Senta; Theo Adam (bs-b), Dutchman; BBC Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded Feb.-Mar. 1968

Acts II and III joined, starting back near
the end of the Dutchman-Senta scene

Elisabeth Grümmer (s), Senta; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Dutchman; Gottlob Frick (bs), Daland; Berlin State Opera Chorus, Staatskapelle Berlin, Franz Konwitschny, cond. EMI, recorded 1959

Lisbeth Balslev (s), Senta; Simon Estes (bs-b), Dutchman; Matti Salminen (bs), Daland; Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Woldemar Nelsson, cond. Philips, recorded live, 1985
UPDATE: I don't know how the original version of the Nelsson-Philips clip got cut off, but the new version should be okay.


NOW WE GO BACK TO THE JOIN BETWEEN ACTS I AND II

We've already heard most of what we hear here as the end of Act I (what we heard began at Daland's "Hey, how the sails are already filling!" We're going to here it first with the full stop that Wagner composed for the version in three independent acts. Then we'll hear the two acts joined, as Wagner originally composed them.

The Flying Dutchman: Act I end, from Steersman, "Südwind! Südwind" ("South wind! South wind!") . . . Act II beginning, Spinning Song

STEERSMAN [on board]: South wind! South wind!
SAILORS [waving their caps]:
STEERSMAN: Ah, dear south wind, blow once more!
DALAND: You see, fortune favors you:
the wind is fast, the sea calm.
Let us weigh anchor forthwith
and sail bent for home.
STEERSMAN and SAILORS [weighing anchor and hoisting sail]: Hoho! Hallojo!
DUTCHMAN: May I ask you to sail on ahead?
The wind is fresh, but my crew are weary.
I'l let them rest awhile, then follow on.
DALAND: Yes, but the wind?
DUTCHMAN: It's set to blow from the south.
My ship is swift, and will overtake you!
DALAND: You think so? Well, so be it!
Farewell! You may yet see my daughter today!
DUTCHMAN: For sure!
DALAND [going aboard his ship]:
Hey, how the sails are already filling!
Hallo! Hallo!
[He gives a signal on his whistle.]
Quick, lads, cast off!
SAILORS [as they sail off]:
Through thunder and storm, through distant seas
I draw near, my lass! Hurrah!
Through towering waves, from the south
I am here, my lass! Hurrah!
My girl, were there no south wind,
I could never come to you:
Oh, dear south wind, blow once more!
My lass longs for me!
Ho! Ho! Ho, yo-lo-ho!
Ho ho ho ho ho!
Ho! Ho! Ho, yo-lo-ho! Ho ho ho ho ho ho!

ACT II

A spacious room in DALAND's house. MARY and the girls are seated around the hearth, spinning.

GIRLS: Whirr and whirl, good wheel,
gaily, gaily turn!
Spin, spin a thousand threads,
good wheel, whirr and whirl!
My love is out there on the seas,
thinking of his dear at home;
good wheel, roll and roar!
Ah, if you could raise a wind,
he'd soon be here.
Spin, girls, spin busily!
Whirr and whirl, good wheel!
Tralarala la la la la!

Acts I and II separated

Ernst Häfliger (t), Steersman; Josef Greindl (bs), Daland; Josef Metternich (b), Dutchman; RIAS Chamber Chorus, RIAS Sympony Orchestra (Berlin), Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded 1952

Gerhard Unger (t), Steersman; Martti Talvela (bs), Daland; Theo Adam (bs-b), Dutchman; BBC Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded Feb.-Mar. 1968

Acts I and II joined

Fritz Wunderlich (t), Steersman; Gottlob Frick (bs), Daland; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b); Dutchman; Berlin State Opera Chorus, Staatskapelle Berlin, Franz Konwitschny, cond. EMI, recorded 1959

Graham Clark (t), Steersman; Matti Salminen (bs), Daland; Simon Estes (bs-b), Dutchman; Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Woldemar Nelsson, cond. Philips, recorded live, 1985


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Sunday Classics preview: A little more of "The Flying Dutchman" -- we hear from the sailors

WAGNER: The Flying Dutchman: End of Act I, Daland, "Hei! Wie die Segel schon sich blähn" ("Hey, how the sails are already filling!") . . . Sailors, "Mit Gewitter und Sturm" ("Through thunder and storm")

DALAND [going aboard his ship]:
Hey, how the sails are already filling!
Hallo! Hallo!
[He gives a signal on his whistle.]
Quick, lads, cast off!
SAILORS [as they sail off]:
Through thunder and storm, through distant seas
I draw near, my lass! Hurrah!
Through towering waves, from the south
I am here, my lass! Hurrah!
My girl, were there no south wind,
I could never come to you:
Oh, dear south wind, blow once more!
My lass longs for me!
Ho! Ho! Ho, yo-lo-ho!
Ho ho ho ho ho!
Ho! Ho! Ho, yo-lo-ho! Ho ho ho ho ho ho!

Hans Sotin (bs), Daland; Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Christoph von Dohnányi, cond. Decca, recorded March-Nov. 1991

by Ken

Two weeks ago, in our Father's Day special, we made the acquaintance of the Norwegian sea captain Daland in Wagner's Flying Dutchman -- first (barely) surviving a sudden, violent storm just as his ship is nearing home port, in sight of his own house; then introducing his cherished daughter, Senta, to an eminently marriageable fellow sea captain he has met by the most remarkable chance.

The gentleman caller is in fact none other than the legendary Flying Dutchman, doomed to sail the seas until he finds redemption through love. Only the Dutchman turns out to be not a legend but a flesh-and-blood man, and one who could provide for Senta better than Daland could have dared hope. In our excerpt above, after Daland and the Dutchman have gotten to know each other under these bizarre circumstances and the Dutchman has agreed to call on Senta, the sailors have been roused by the sudden rising -- finally! -- of a south wind, the wind that will take them home. What we've heard is in fact the end of Act I.


IF THIS MUSIC SOUNDS FAMILIAR (BUT DIFFERENT) . . .

It should. Let's hark back to the Steersman's Song early on in Act I, after the furor of the opening storm has subsided, and Daland, the ship's captain, as well as the rest of the crew, have gone below decks to get some much-needed sleep, leaving the equally exhausted Steersman to stand watch. We heard my three favorite Steersmen in the earlier post, but here's another quite fine one. (All three of our excerpts tonight are from the Dohnányi-Decca Dutchman.)

WAGNER: The Flying Dutchman: Act I, Steersman's Song

The STEERSMAN is alone on deck. The storm has abated somewhat and returns only at sporadic intervals. He rouses himself as sleep comes over him.

STEERSMAN: Through thunder and storm, through distant seas
I draw near, my lass!
Through towering waves, from the south
I am here, my lass!
My girl, were there no south wind,
I could never come to you:
Oh, dear south wind, blow once more!
My lass longs for me!
Hohoye! Hallohoho! Yolohohoho!
[A wave breaks against the ship, shaking it violently. The STEERSMAN starts up and looks around. Having satisfied himself that no harm has been done, he sits down again and sings, while sleep gradually overcomes him.]
On southern shores, in distant lands,
I have thought of you;
through storm and sand, from Moorish strands
a gift I have brought for you.
My girl, praise the fair south wind,
for I bring you a golden ring!
Ah, dear south wind, then blow!
My lass would fain have her gift.
Hohoye! Hollaho!
[He struggles with his fatigue and finally falls asleep.]

-- based on a translation by Lionel Salter

Uwe Heilmann (t), Steersman; Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Christoph von Dohnányi, cond. Decca, recorded March-Nov. 1991

HINT: This could be a good time to go back and relisten to the audio clip of the end of Act I.


LET'S HEAR MORE FROM THE SAILORS

We jump now from the end of Act I to the first musical business of Act III, where we find the sailors doing some serious on-land unwinding.

The Flying Dutchman: Act III, Sailors' Chorus and Dance

SAILORS [drinking]: Steersman! Leave the watch!
Steersman! Here with us!
Ho! Hey! Hey! Ha!
Hoist the sail! Drop anchor!
Steersman! Here!
Fearing neither wind nor dangerous shore
today will be right merry!
Each one has his sweetheart on land.
Splendid tobacco and good brandy wine!
Hussassa hey!
Crag and storm out there --
Yollolo hey! --
we laugh at!
Hussassa hey!
Furl sail! Anchor fast! Crag and storm we laugh at!
Steersman, here! Drink with us!
Hey! Hussa hey! Hallo hey!
[They dance on the deck, accompanying the downbeat of each bar with a heavy stamp of the feet. The GIRLS arrive with baskets full of food and drink.]

Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Christoph von Dohnányi, cond. Decca, recorded March-Nov. 1991

Suggestion: This could be a good time to go back and relisten to the clip of the end of Act I.


THERE'S A REASON WHY WE'VE HEARD THE
END OF ACT I AND THE START OF ACT III

Partly we're preparing to add just a bit to our earlier musical portrait of Daland, via the end of Act II, which we'll be hearing in this week's Sunday Classics post. And partly we're going to be looking at the ways in which Wagner has joined Acts I and II and Acts II and III, with some more general notes relative to the Case of the Vanishing Intermissions. Which actually doesn't apply to Dutchman, but never mind. [Didn't happen. Sometime soon maybe.]


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Sunday Classics: Father's Day special -- Wagner's Daland usually knows better than to trust in the wind

DALAND: [coming down from the cliff]:
No doubt! Seven miles away
the storm has driven us from safe port.
So near our goal after a long voyage,
this trick was saved up for me!
STEERSMAN [on board, shouting through cupped hands]:
Ho! Captain!
DALAND: On board with you -- how goes it?
STEERSMAN [as before]: Good, captain!
We have firm grounding.
DALAND: It's Sandwike! I know the bay well.
[0:53] Damn! I already saw my house on the shore.
Senta, my child, I imagined myself already embracing.
Then came this blast from the depths of hell.
Who trusts in wind trusts in Satan's mercy.
Who trusts in wind trusts in Satan's mercy,
trusts in Satan's mercy.
[He goes on board the ship.]
There's no help for it! Patience! The storm is abating;
so fierce a storm couldn't last long.
[On board] Hey, lads! Your watch was long --
to rest then! I'm not concerned anymore.
[The sailors go below deck on the ship.]
Now, steersman, will you take the watch for me?
There's no danger, but it's good if you keep watch.
STEERSMAN: Be without worry! Sleep peacefully, captain!
[DALAND goes into his cabin. The STEERSMAN is alone on deck. The storm has abated somewhat and returns only at sporadic intervals. The waves are still rough on the open sea. The STEERSMAN makes his round once more, then sits down near the rudder. He yawns, then rouses himself as sleep comes over him.]

Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Daland; Harald Ek (t), Steersman; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live, 1971

by Ken

In Friday night's preview we met the Norwegian sea captain Daland in happy homecoming mode, in Act II of The Flying Dutchman -- not just happy to be returning to his home and his beloved daugher Senta from an unusually perilous voyage with life and limbs intact, but returning in the company of a stranger, met under extraordinary circumstances, who is the best son-in-law material fate could have sent his way.

Now we're returning, not quite to Act I curtain rise (we'll get there in a moment), but to the brush with death, for him and his crew, that Daland has just survived thanks to a combination of luck and his own nautical skill. With his ship becalmed but safe just off the coast, not far from home, he berates himself for having, incredibly foolishly, let slip his guard against the vagaries of fate. The section we're especially concerned with here is the highlighted one, where for the first time he indulges in sustained singing, when he recalls that literally within sight of home, already imagining himself there, with Senta in his arms, he was beset by a violent storm outburst that caught him almost tragically unprepared.

This extraordinary little set piece he sings is at once one of the most vivid examples I know of the way music, and in particular vocal music, can be used to create character and dramatic urgency and one of the most challenging but potentially rewarding pieces of vocal writing I know. And I've never heard anyone do it fuller justice than Karl Ridderbusch in this live performance from the 1971 Bayreuth Festival.

He sings high, he sings low; he sings with unmatched power and unrivaled delicacy; he attacks every pitch dead-on while binding phrases with ravishing tone and dramatic sweep. Above all he really does sing every note, filling out each syllable with the ravishing sound of a great bass voice under complete, sculpting phrases with seemingly effortless control.

To be perhaps a little clearer, I though we'd listen to this amazing scene chunk again, in an assortment of performances that I consider admirable in many respects (much better than the average one encounters; it would be too easy to make the case with that sort of performance), and then listen to Ridderbusch's again.

WAGNER: The Flying Dutchman: Act I, Daland, "Kein Zweifel! Sieben Meilen fort" ("No doubt! Seven miles away")


Josef Greindl (bs), Daland; Ernst Häfliger (t), Steersman; RIAS Symphony Orchestra (Berlin), Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded 1952

Gottlob Frick (bs), Daland; Staatskapelle Berlin, Franz Konwitschny, cond. EMI-Deutsche Schallplatten, recorded 1959

Matti Salminen (bs), Daland; Graham Clark (t), Steersman; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Woldemar Nelsson, cond. Philips, recorded live, 1985

Josef Greindl, crafty artist though he was (he seems to have been a great favorite of many conductors, including one of the stature of Wilhelm Furtwängler), had even in his "prime" a voice that one could most politely describe as, um, not especially attractive. In a May 1993 obituary in the Independent Elizabeth Forbes, who heard him as Sarastro in Mozart's Magic Flute at Salzburg in 1951 and the next year as Hagen in Wagner's Götterdämmerung at Bayreuth and then at Covent Garden in roles including Hans Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger and Rocco in Beethoven's Fidelio, wrote that his "power of characterisation easily compensated for a certain lack of intrinsic beauty in his black-toned voice." "A certain lack of intrinsic beauty" -- I like that!

Gottlob Frick and Matti Salminen, meanwhile, working with voices that have a good deal more attractiveness to them, don't have anything like Ridderbusch's vocal command. Frick and conductor Franz Konwitschny don't muster anything like the dramatic momentum of Ridderbusch and Karl Böhm, while Salminen's somewhat odd vocal mechanics remain a distraction.

Here are Ridderbusch and Böhm again:


Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Daland; Harald Ek (t), Steersman; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live, 1971


I THOUGHT WE'D HEAR DALAND'S ACT II SONG AGAIN,
BUT THIS TIME WITH A BIT MORE CONTEXT-SETTING

Daland is often thought of as a stock comic figure, the avaricious father who cares about nothing except finding a rich husband for his daughter. I suppose this is okay for the many people who really think of art as a way of filling time with nonsense that makes them even stupider and less aware of the world around them (a function now filled so admirably by so-called reality TV, which mimics reality while having at heart nothing to do with it). Never mind how much care and genius Wagner lavished in making Daland something way more interesting.

It is, to digress, much the same misunderstanding traditionally applied to the character of Father Rocco in Beethoven's Fidelio. In the opening scene of Act I, he tries to caution his daughter, Marzelline, against the dangers of being guided by your heart alone in the matter of mating. I couldn't resist assembling a roster of notable recorded Roccos. (I should note that we're hearing Ludwig Weber -- a wildly inconsistent singer, judging by his live performance, at the age of 58!)

BEETHOVEN: Fidelio, Op. 72: Act I, Aria, Rocco, "Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben ("If you don't have money too")

ROCCO: If you don't have money too,
you cannot be really happy;
life drags sadly by,
many an anxiety sets in.
But when it clinks and rolls in your pockets,
fate is then your prisoner,
and money will bring you power and love
and satisfy your wildest dreams.
Luck, like a servant, works for wages;
it's a lovely thng, is money,
it's a precious thing, is money.

If you add nothing to nothing
the total is and stays small;
if you find only love at mealtimes,
you'll be hungry afterwards.
Then let fortune smile kindly upon you,
and bless and guide your efforts;
your sweetheart in your arms,
money in your purse,
so may you live many years.
Luck, like a servant, works for wages;
it's a mighty thing, s money.

-- English translation by William Mann

Alexander Kipnis (bs), Rocco; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Bruno Walter, cond. Live performance, Feb. 22, 1941

Ludwig Weber (bs), Rocco; RAI Symphony Orchestra, Rome, Eugen Jochum, cond. Broadcast performance, Dec. 22, 1957

Gottlob Frick (bs), Rocco; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Otto Klemperer, cond. Testament, recorded live, Feb. 24, 1961

Kurt Moll (bs), Rocco; Staatskapelle Dresden, Bernard Haitink, cond. Philips, recorded November 1989

René Pape (bs), Rocco; Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Teldec, recorded May-June 1999

Now here's Karl Ridderbusch, once again (it seems to me) mopping up the considerable competition.


Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Rocco; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. EMI, recorded 1970

Note that Rocco isn't saying Marzelline should marry only for money, just that it's well to have it "auch," "also." And what father, especially a single father of a lone daughter, would think otherwise? As Daland's scramble for survival, braving fate on the high seas, reminds us, life is tough.

That said, I think we're ready to return to Daland's aria, only this time we'll add the quite short chunk of scene that precedes it. One piece of information we need to add here is that Senta is Scandinavia's leading groupie of the Flying Dutchman, the legendary sea captain doomed to ply the seas until he finds a redeeming love. And while Daland may think of his guest as simply another sailor like himself, he is in fact the flesh-and-blood Flying Dutchman.

Act II, Scene and Aria, Daland, "Mein Kind, du siehst mich auf der Schwelle" . . . "Mögst du, mein Kind, dem fremden Mann Willkommen heissen?" ("My child, you see me on the threshhold" . . . "Would you, my child, bid this stranger welcome?")

A large room in DALAND's house. SENTA is sunk in silent meditation, her eyes fixed on her portrait of the legendary Flying Dutchman.

DALAD and the DUTCHMAN enter. SENTA's gaze sweeps from the portrait to the DUTCHMAN. She utters a loud cry of astonishment and remains as if spellbound, without taking her eyes off him. The DUTCHMAN comes slowly forward.

DALAND [having remained standing at the door, gradually approaches SENTA]: My child, you see me on the threshhold . . .
What! No embrace? No kiss?
You stand rooted to the spot.
Senta, do I deserve such a greeting?
SENTA [as DALAND comes up to her, she grasps his hand]: God give you greeting!
[Drawing him closer to her] Father, say,
who is this stranger?
DALAND [smiling]: Do you press me?

Would you, my child, bid this stranger welcome?
A sailor is he, like me; he asks our hospitality.
Long without homeland, always on far, long journeys,
in foreign lands he has gained great wealth.
Banished from his fatherland,
for a home he will pay richly.
Say, Senta, would it displease you
if this stranger stays with us?
[SENTA nods her approval. DALAND turns to the DUTCHMAN.]
Say, did I praise her too much?
You see her yourself -- does she please you?
Should I let my praises yet overflow?
Admit, she is an ornament to her sex.
[The DUTCHMAN makes a gesture of approval.]
Would you, my child, show yourself well-disposed to this man?
He also asks for the beautiful gift of your heart.
If you give him your hand, you are to call him bridegroom.
If you heed your father, tomorrow he'll be your husband.
[SENTA makes a convulsive, painful movement. DALAND produces some jewelry and shows it to his daughter.]
See this ring, see these bracelets!
What he owns makes this meager.
Mustn't you, dear child, long for it?
It's yours if you exchange rings.
[SENTA, without paying any attention to him, doesn't take her eyes off the DUTCHMAN, who likewise, without listening to DALAND, is absorbed in contemplating her. DALAND becomes aware of this; he looks at them both.]
But neither speaks . . . Am I not wanted here?
So it is! I'd best leave them alone.
[To SENTA] May you win this noble man!
Believe me, such look won't happen again.
[To the DUTCHMAN] Stay here alone! I'll go away.
Believe me, however beautiful, she is that faithful.
[He goes out slowly, watching them both with pleased surprise. SENTA and the DUTCHMAN are alone. Long pause.]

Josef Greindl (bs), Daland; Annelies Kupper (s), Senta; RIAS Symphony Orchestra (Berlin), Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded 1952

Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Daland; Gwyneth Jones (s), Senta; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live, 1971

Kurt Moll (bs), Daland; Dunja Vejzovic (s), Senta; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. EMI, recorded 1981-83

Matti Salminen (bs), Daland; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Woldemar Nelsson, cond. Philips, recorded live, 1985


FINALLY, LET'S RETURN TO THE BEGINNING AND HEAR
THE WHOLE OPENING SCENE OF THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

And I want to start with three performances notable among other things for having my favorite incarnations of the small but important role of Daland's steersman. The Steersman's song is on separate tracks because I originally made separate files of them, so you'll have to click again to hear Ernst Häfliger (a tenor we've heard in a number of assignments, including Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte, which he sang in the to-me-legendary Jochum-DG recording), Fritz Wunderlich (singing it better than I expect ever to hear it sung again), and Harald Ek, who perhaps sounds most like a sailor singing, as opposed to a balladeer who has somehow found his way onto Daland's ship.

WAGNER: The Flying Dutchman: Overture and Opening Scene . . . Steersman's Song

A steep, rocky shore. The sea occupies the greater part of the stage; a wide view over it.

DALAND's ship has just cast anchor near the shore; the sailors are noisily occupied in furling the sails, casting ropes, etc. DALAND has gone ashore; he climbs a cliff and looks landwards to get his bearings.

SAILORS [at work]: Hoyoye! Hoyoye! Halloyo!
DALAND [coming down from the cliff]: No doubt! Seven miles away
the storm has driven us from safe port.
So near our goal after a long voyage,
this trick was saved up for me!
STEERSMAN [on board, shouting through cupped hands]:
Ho! Captain!
DALAND: On board with you -- how goes it?
STEERSMAN [as before]: Good, captain!
We have firm grounding.
DALAND: It's Sandwike! I know the bay well.
Damn! I already saw my house on the shore.
Senta, my child, I imagined myself already embracing.
Then came this blast from the depths of hell.
Who trusts in wind trusts in Satan's mercy.
Who trusts in wind trusts in Satan's mercy,
trusts in Satan's mercy.
[He goes on board the ship.]
There's no help for it! Patience! The storm is abating;
so fierce a storm couldn't last long.
[On board] Hey, lads! Your watch was long --
to rest then! I'm not concerned anymore.
[The sailors go below deck on the ship.]
Now, steersman, will you take the watch for me?
There's no danger, but it's good if you keep watch.
STEERSMAN: Be without worry! Sleep peacefully, captain!
[DALAND goes into his cabin. The STEERSMAN is alone on deck. The storm has abated somewhat and returns only at sporadic intervals. The waves are still rough on the open sea. The STEERSMAN makes his round once more, then sits down near the rudder. He yawns, then rouses himself as sleep comes over him.]
STEERSMAN: Through thunder and storm, through distant seas
I draw near, my lass!
Through towering waves, from the south
I am here, my lass!
My girl, were there no south wind,
I could never come to you:
Oh, dear south wind, blow once more!
My lass longs for me!
Hohoye! Hallohoho! Yolohohoho!
[A wave breaks against the ship, shaking it violently. The STEERSMAN starts up and looks around. Having satisfied himself that no harm has been done, he sits down again and sings, while sleep gradually overcomes him.]
On southern shores, in distant lands,
I have thought of you;
through storm and sand, from Moorish strands
a gift I have brought for you.
My girl, praise the fair south wind,
for I bring you a golden ring!
Ah, dear south wind, then blow!
My lass would fain have her gift.
Hohoye! Hollaho!
[He struggles with his fatigue and finally falls asleep.]

-- based on a translation by Lionel Salter

Josef Greindl (bs), Daland; Ernst Häfliger (t), Steersman; RIAS Chamber Chorus, RIAS Symphony Orchestra (Berlin), Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded 1952


Gottlob Frick (bs), Daland; Fritz Wunderlich (t), Steersman; Berlin State Opera Chorus, Staatskapelle Berlin, Franz Konwitschny, cond. EMI-Deutsche Schallplatten, recorded 1959


Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Daland; Harald Ek (t), Steersman; Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live, 1971

I thought you might also enjoy hearing how the other Dalands we've heard Friday night and today handle this scene, so here it is again, only in these cases without the Steersman's song.


Matti Salminen (bs), Daland; Graham Clark (t), Steersman; Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Woldemar Nelsson, cond. Philips, recorded live, 1985

Martti Talvela (bs), Daland; Gerhard Unger (t), Steersman; BBC Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded Feb.-Mar. 1968

Kurt Moll (bs), Daland; Thomas Moser (t), Steersman; Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. EMI, recorded 1981-83

There is, by the way, a gorgeous performance of the piece by Kurt Moll on an Orfeo disc of operatic ariss, unencumbered by the sort of dream state in which Herbert von Karajan seems to have overlaid his Dutchman recording. It's a performance I used to love listening to over and over, but I don't have it on CD. I kept thinking I was going to dub it from my LP copy, but I didn't. Some other time.


COMING UP (MAYBE NEXT WEEK, MAYBE NOT)

How I got onto the subject of Karl Ridderbusch in the first place, with excerpts from his King Heinrich in Lohengrin and some other goodies.


VISIT THE STAND-ALONE SUNDAY CLASSICS WITH KEN

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Sunday Classics preview: Father's Day special -- meet the sea captain Daland (with UPDATE: Overture!)

In Act II of Wagner's Flying Dutchman, the sea captain Daland has just walked into his home on the rugged Norwegian coast following a harrowing voyage with a near-fatal landing, as we witnessed in Act I. Here bass Karl Ridderbusch as Daland exhorts his daughter, Senta, to welcome the guest he's brought home with him (from a Rome Radio broadcast performance conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, February 15, 1969).

DALAND: Would you, my child, bid this stranger welcome?
A sailor is he, like me; he asks our hospitality.
Long without homeland, always on far, long journeys,
in foreign lands he has gained great wealth.
Banished from his fatherland,
for a home he will pay richly.
Say, Senta, would it displease you
if this stranger stays with us?
[SENTA nods her approval. DALAND turns to the DUTCHMAN.]
Say, did I praise her too much?
You see her yourself -- does she please you?
Should I let my praises yet overflow?
Admit, she is an ornament to her sex.
[The DUTCHMAN makes a gesture of approval.]
Would you, my child, show yourself well-disposed to this man?
He also asks for the beautiful gift of your heart.
If you give him your hand, you are to call him bridegroom.
If you heed your father, tomorrow he'll be your husband.
[SENTA makes a convulsive, painful movement. DALAND produces some jewelry and shows it to his daughter.]
See this ring, see these bracelets!
What he owns makes this meager.
Mustn't you, dear child, long for it?
It's yours if you exchange rings.
[SENTA, without paying any attention to him, doesn't take her eyes off the DUTCHMAN, who likewise, without listening to DALAND, is absorbed in contemplating her. DALAND becomes aware of this; he looks at them both.]
But neither speaks . . . Am I not wanted here?
So it is! I'd best leave them alone.
[To SENTA] May you win this noble man!
Believe me, such look won't happen again.
[To the DUTCHMAN] Stay here alone! I'll go away.
Believe me, however beautiful, she is that faithful.
[He goes out slowly, watching them both with pleased surprise. SENTA and the DUTCHMAN are alone. Long pause.]

by Ken

This week's post has come about in an even more than usually roundabout way, triggered by a comment I was startled to encounter online about a performance by the bass we just heard, Karl Ridderbusch -- a comment so bizarrely off the mark that it made me wonder whether it tells us something about the way at least some latter-day listeners hear singing.

The comment pertained to Ridderbusch's first commercial recording of King Heinrich in Wagner's Lohengrin, but it soon occurred to me that the discussion should be expanded to include his Daland in The Flying Dutchman as well. Then it occurred to me that the discussion might more sensibly begin with The Flying Dutchman, and finally it occurred to me that we could hardly have a more appropriate subject for the Father's Day weekend.

THIS IS ONE OF THOSE PIECES I'VE BEEN KNOWN
TO LISTEN TO OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN

I confess that I adore this little set piece. And listening to it over and over and over again is essentially what we're going to do in tonight's preview. We'll hear it first a solid all-around performance at what I would call a moderate tempo. Then, since it does lend itself to a surprisingly wide range of pacings, we'll hear a couple of distinctly different alternatives.

WAGNER: The Flying Dutchman": Act II, Aria, Daland, "Mögst du, mein Kind, dem fremden Mann Willkommen heissen?" ("Would you, my child, bid this stranger welcome?")


Gottlob Frick (bs), Daland; Staatskapelle Berlin, Franz Konwitschny, cond. EMI-Deutsche Schallplatten, recorded 1959

Now here it is again, a little quicker:


Matti Salminen (bs), Daland; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Woldemar Nelsson, cond. Philips, recorded 1985

And here it is, quite a bit slower (we have to give credit to our soloist for sustaining the arduous pace):


Martti Talvela (bs), Daland; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded Feb.-Mar. 1968


AFTERTHOUGHT: I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'VE NEVER
HEARD THE FLYING DUTCHMAN OVERTURE

Now that we've heard that orchestral postlude to Daland's aria, setting the stage for the Dutchman-Senta scene, and therefore pregnant with Dutchman and Senta thematic material, we really ought to hear the Overture, and I don't find any audio files that I've made for it (not counting the ones we'll be hearing Sunday, that is). I tried to add this pair of flavorful performances last night, but the online deities balked.

WAGNER: The Flying Dutchman: Overture


Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter, cond. Columbia-CBS-Sony, recorded Feb. 20, 1959

Munich Philharmonic, Hans Knappertsbusch, cond. Westminster-MCA, recorded November 1962


IN THIS WEEK'S "SPECIAL FATHER'SDAY EDITION" OF SUNDAY CLASSICS --

We'll have a more proper introduction to Daland, and the music that brings him to life, and the singer who in my experience has done so most vividly.

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