United Kingdom Wagner, Der fliegende Holländer: Soloists, Saffron Opera Group Refrain (inc. Saffron Walden Choral Society, refrain masters: James Davey and Quintin Beer), Saffron Opera Group Orchestra / Michael Thorne (conductor). Saffron Corridor, Saffron Walden, 14.9.2025. (JPr)
Forged:
The Dutchman – Simon Thorpe
Senta – Mari Wyn Williams
Erik – Charne Rochford
Daland – Andrew Greenan
The Steersman – Andrew Henley
Mary – Yvonne Howard
Conductor Michael Thorne wrote within the programme how Wagner – is supposedly to have – modified the placement of the story of his Der fliegende Holländer from Scotland to Norway due to ‘a turbulent sea journey alongside the Norwegian coast’ and the way Wagner subsequently wrote in regards to the hurricane he, and his first spouse Minna, endured; ‘how relieved I used to be to behold that far-reaching rocky coast, in the direction of which we had been being pushed.’ It was one thing like that for me as I drove again after the opera by a horrendous storm – if not in the direction of a rocky coast fortunately, however Wickford in Essex – because the rain and spray made all of it relatively hazardous.
Thorne’s was one in every of two attention-grabbing contributions which knowledgeable the Saffron Corridor viewers one thing in regards to the opera they had been about to listen to with none point out about which of the assorted extant variations of Wagner’s 1843 opera it was. Why does this matter? Nicely, we weren’t advised that this Holländer was Wagner’s 1860 second ideas with its Tristan-style ‘redemption’ ending to the Overture and ultimate bars of the opera (the unique 1843 ending was relatively bleak regardless that Senta, in fact, nonetheless sacrificed herself for the Dutchman). Additionally, a one-act Holländer is extra usually the norm as Wagner’s considering was intervals would halt the work’s dramatic impulse, and his needs ought to actually be adhered to if potential. Saffron Opera Group did have an excuse for his or her 30-minute interval earlier than a 30-minute third act because the refreshment retailers at Saffron Corridor wanted the enterprise, a few of the viewers benefited from a ‘consolation break’, and it gave much-needed respite to a valiant orchestra not used to taking part in for 2½ hours straight by.
That Saffron Opera Group Orchestra appeared somewhat wanting numbers in sure sections, and the horns have had higher days, however they performed with their standard whole-hearted dedication for the mercurial determine of Michael Thorne on the rostrum. He amazingly managed to carry issues collectively when the ensemble threatened to fracture on just a few events. There was spectacular quantity even when ambiance and pleasure was restricted initially of the opera: I made extra noise wheezing to get to my seat than the wind machine managed and so we by no means actually skilled the howling winds or rolling and tossing of stormy seas which Wagner calls for. Nonetheless, as if refreshed by the break, the orchestra introduced the opera to a tempestuous shut that I’ll bear in mind for a very long time.
Elaine McKrill’s live performance staging had a number of applicable entrances and exits and saved us from singers seated behind music stands. Props had been restricted to a small ‘Dutchman’ portrait and there was an try at totally different costumes for his or her characters by some singers. Daland (Andrew Greenan) had one thing of the ocean captain (Birdseye?) about him and Erik (Charne Rochford) certainly would possibly initially have been a hunter. Nonetheless, the Dutchman (Simon Thorpe) – maybe selecting up on Caroline Galwey’s suggestion within the programme that he’s ‘a Byronic determine’ – appeared relatively odd in a frilly shirt and glossy, crimson, patterned waistcoat. Senta and her nurse Mary, failed, by the look of it, to get the costume memo and had been in virtually matching, elegant night robes with some bling. Lastly, whereas duetting on the finish of Act II the Dutchman and Senta had been stored too far aside on the live performance platform.
Mari Wyn Williams was the undoubted star of this efficiency and the only real singer inside her position and completely free of the rating in entrance of her, as a result of she had sung Senta in her Opera North debut this yr. Okay there was not truly a lot sense of a younger lady’s single-minded preoccupation with the Dutchman legend, however Williams’s brilliant soprano was critically spectacular with its heat tones and excessive notes attacked fearlessly.
Simon Thorpe didn’t make a dramatically convincing Dutchman in my view, I didn’t expertise the character’s ache, anguish and struggling. Nonetheless, Thorpe’s baritone voice – when it was not sometimes failing him – had a wealthy vibrancy and conviction, although extra suited to Daland or Rocco (Beethoven’s Fidelio) than the Dutchman. Bass Andrew Greenan was an appropriately worn and grizzled Daland. I discovered myself appalled – greater than I’ve ever been? – by the opera’s misogyny as Daland negotiates a worth in gold and jewels for marrying off his daughter Senta: 2025 sensibilities, maybe?
Charne Rochford (who returned in Act III merely in black shirt and trousers) was her hapless suitor Erik; when he sang tenderly it was fairly affecting however when indignant he tended to oversing and it was all a lot too loud. Finishing the solid was the skilled Yvonne Howard as a characterful Mary and Andrew Henley sounded a heroic tenor voice to be careful for although because the Steersman he was consigned to the higher reaches of Saffron Corridor – had he aggravated somebody?
The augmented Saffron Opera Group Refrain sang uninhibitedly and vigorously all through, although some effort ought to have been made to differentiate the Dutchman’s ghostly crew from the others close to the top: both vocally (as a result of they had been removed from scary) and even in some way visually. Nonetheless, at this level in Holländer the music can’t fail and it might hardly have been extra compelling from the mixed forces of the Saffron Opera Group as Wagner’s denouement had everybody becoming a member of within the unfolding tragedy, that 1860 ‘redemptive’ ending however.
Jim Pritchard
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Featured Picture: Mari Wyn Williams (Senta) and Andrew Greenan (Daland) © Roger King
