REVIEW: THE FLYING DUTCHMAN @ THEATRE ROYAL PLYMOUTH

🎭 The Flying Dutchman

📍  The Lyric, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Royal Parade, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 2TR

🗓 Friday 24th April 2026

⭐️ 4 Stars

BROODING AND MUSICALLY SUBLIME

The Welsh National Opera’s brand new production of Wagner’s THE FLYING DUTCHMAN is very different. Stark and intense with sublime voices, it requires much of its audience to fill in spaces in the absence of scenery and movement.

Director Jack Furness uses the eleven minute overture to add a backstory of Senta’s birth and girlhood.  This shifts the traditional focus from the eponymous Dutchman to her and perhaps provides explanations for her strange behaviour and her obsession with the legend of the Flying Dutchman. It is an interesting slant on the traditional and possibly the last time anyone spares a thought for the unfortunate Senta in Wagner’s gendered libretto.

We follow the tale through a ferocious storm which forces Senta’s father, Captain Daland, away from berthing his ship in his home harbour and to wait it out at anchor. He sends his exhausted crew to bed, leaving his Steersman on watch. The weary Steersman bemoans being kept from his sweetheart by capricious winds and eventually overwhelmed by tiredness also falls asleep. For me James Creswell as Daland with his warm, rolling bass and Trystan Llŷr Griffiths’ bright tenor as the Steersman were my two favourite male voices in this opera.

While the ship’s crew sleeps a ghostly apparition moors up alongside, its spectral crew merely a hint in the mist. Its strangely garbed Captain boards Daland’s ship and tells his sorry tale. He is the Flying Dutchman, doomed to roam the oceans, able to go ashore only every seven years to find a woman who will break his curse by being faithful to the day she dies…

I felt a moment of relief at the beginning of Act 2 where the sombre colours and voices of the men are replaced by the brightness of the women. The Spinning Chorus is so beautifully sung, joyous, teasing and full of light. The chattering anticipation of the women as they prepare for the return of their men brought under control periodically by overseer Mary, Monika Sawa who uses her stunning, rich mezzo soprano to great effect. Only Senta is quiet, gazing at the painting of the Flying Dutchman. Rachel Nicholls as Senta sings with impassioned, clear soprano as she relates the ballad of the cursed Dutchman to the women in explanation of her fascination with him.

This is without doubt a production of contrasts with substantial sparsity particularly in movement. We go from swaying sailors to Daland and the Dutchman standing still apparently singing at us rather than conversing with each other.  Then from the drunken revels of the returned sailors and their sweethearts to rooms with one chair. The sweeping seas are carried by Wagner’s music unaided.

Lighting, an abstract painted backdrop and our imaginations provide the rest of the information. Whilst enjoying the apparitions which appeared and faded in the mists, some of them were a little obscure. Were the women Senta’s predecessors who failed in breaking the curse? I am unsure whether this is a deliberate choice or a restriction forced by the WNO’s much discussed budget cuts.

Despite these idiosyncrasies, the singing is magnificent and passionate, alongside the ever wonderful WNO orchestra whose stirring Wagnerian theme is still running round my head today!

Rosie Sharman-Ward

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one person.

My ticket for this performance of The Flying Dutchman was gifted by Theatre Royal Plymouth who invited me to watch the show on behalf of Pink Prince Theatre in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given.

CAST LIST:

Simon Bailey as The Dutchman; Rachel Nicholls as Senta; James Creswell as Daland; Leonardo Caimi as Erik; Trystan Llŷr Griffiths as Steersman; Monika Sawa as Mary; Rhiannon Llewellyn as Senta's Mother; STacey Wheeler as Nurse; Chorus of Welsh National Opera as Maidens and Crew

RUNNING TIME (approx):

2 hours 50 minutes, including interval

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Strobes; Flashing lights; Haze; Smoke and naked flames on stage

Sung in German with English subtitles

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