Richard Wagner - Der fliegende Hollaender | 
 enlarge | Director: Vaclav Kaslik
Actors: Donald Mcintyre, Catarina Ligendza, Bengt Rundgren, Hermann Winkler, Wolfgang Sawallisch
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.98
Buy New: $18.43
You Save: $11.55 (39%)
New (23) Used (5) from $18.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 10423
Format: Ac-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc, Subtitled, Surround Sound
Languages: German (Original Language), Chinese (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), German (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 117
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 001099309
UPC: 044007344330
EAN: 0044007344330
ASIN: B0012EF7MO
Theatrical Release Date: 1974
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
Here's a filmed Dutchman soaked in the sea from which the doomed figure of legend emerges into an atmospheric production enhanced by a powerful rendition of the title role and effective conducting by Wolfgang Sawallisch, an experienced Wagnerian. The story of a sinner condemned to sail the seas until Judgment Day, thirsting for a death that can only come through the redemption of a woman's selfless love, is, in Wagner's hands, a searing drama. The Overture is here illustrated with painted scenes that encapsulate the narrative. The opera itself offers traditional costuming and sets with a realism a stage production can't capture. When the Dutchman emerges from his gnarled, threatening ship he tramples through the shallow water of the harbor and we hear the splashes made by his boots. His ship of doom has blood-red sails, but, less happily, his ghostly crew seems left over from a B horror flick. Vaclav Kaslik's film direction captures the opera's atmosphere well, with expressionist touches like the mists that shroud the vessel of doom, and the spider's web of fishing nets that symbolize the way the characters are trapped in their situations. But too-busy camera work and a penchant for closeups more revealing of singers' tonsils than necessary sometimes distracts. Lip-synching, often a problem in filming operas to pre-recorded music, is reasonably well done here. The musical side of the production is successful, with a towering Dutchman in Donald McIntyre whose anguish is clear from his very first appearance and whose singing is exemplary, the voice firm, the interpretation nuanced. Daland, the greedy ship captain seduced by the Dutchman's wealth to promise his daughter, Senta, in marriage is well done by Bengt Rundgren. Senta is a bit more problematic, as soprano Catarina Ligendza tends to be blank-faced as an actress, and with her thin, sometimes ugly high notes and scooping, some distance from the Senta of one's dreams. Her frustrated suitor, Erik, is sung by Hermann Winkler, who brings intensity but also a burly tenor voice to the role. His aria recalling how he met and fell in love with Senta is bawled as if tenderness had no role in a love song. Harald Ek's colorful tenor is ideal for the Steersman and Ruth Hesse is an effective Mary. The Bavarian Opera chorus and orchestra are fine and Sawallisch's excellent conducting keeps the tension high and the narrative swift-moving. Some small cuts, common to stage productions of the period, don't compromise a recommendation firmly based on the conducting and McIntyre's first-rate Dutchman. --Dan Davis The Flying Dutchman is an all-regions disc in 4:3 ratio. Sound options include PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1 Surround. Sung in German, subtitles include English, French, Spanish, and Chinese.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Finally, at last August 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Finally, at last a video of The Flying Dutchman that satisfies! Perhaps this is a difficult opera to stage, and a film is needed. This one is excellent. The violence of stormy seas, the singing of the long-dead sailors in the last act, the hopelessness of Erik's situation, the tentativeness on both sides at the lovers' first encounter--all come through gloriously. It is a thrill to see Donald McIntyre in this. I will watch this video many times.
Mike was Right June 28, 2008
19 out of 37 found this review helpful
Once again Mike Birman has written such an ample and enticing review of this filmed opera that I feel no obligation to do more than refer you to him. In fact, I bought this DVD on Mike's recommendation, and I'm grateful. I'm hardly a steady booster of Richard Wagner; I've been known to declare that he was a major influence on opera but a minor composer. Let's also admit that I distrust his philosophical burden. The Flying Dutchman, however, is an honest evening's entertainment, an eerie ghost story with rollicking sailors and comely house-maidens. The prominence of two expressive roles for basses, with extended bass duets, makes the opera attractive to guys like me, who might otherwise choose to watch baseball.
The "legend" of the Flying Dutchman was brought to Wagner's attention by the greatest German poet of the 19th Century, the Jew Heinrich Heine. Wagner apparently used Heine's "Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelwopski" as his main source. The drama, for once, is compact and coherent. The whole production is a merciful 117 minutes of excitement.
On a personal note: Oddly, I didn't remember that I played the French horn part in the overture to this opera when I was 16 years old, at a summer honors camp for high school orchestra musicians. I switched from horn to bassoon the next year, but not because of Wagner. Honestly, I loved playing that overture and remembered it well enough to hum along with the horn. It's a pretty major composition for a minor composer.
Riveting June 17, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is my second Flying Dutchman I've seen on DVD (the first being one from the Savolinna Opera Festival with Behrens and Backman), and I much prefer this one, for a few reasons, not the least of which is the *realism*. The Dutchman and Daland are saling on actual ships through actual water; there's as much emphasis on acting as singing, and there are some truly thrilling dramatic orchestral moments.
Vocally, Catarina Ligendza (Senta) and Donald McIntyre (The Dutchman) do wonderfully well, and the rest of the cast is also good to great--no one here is graded a C or lower. In response to the review that complains of the "cuts" in the opera, Sawallisch *deliberately* performed the 1843 version because it was, to him, more convincing and dramatic--and I'm inclined to agree. This is the DVD Der Fliegende Hollander of choice, since it is dramatically, musically, and visually exciting.
Very highly recommended.
Terrific 'Flying Dutchman' June 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a wondefully entertaining filmed version of Wagner's opera. Many little cinematic touches abound, such as the ghastly representation of the Dutchman's crew as they try to join in the general dancing and celebration, and the ships themselves. Donald McIntyre is a brooding, powerful Dutchman, and he is supported by excellent vocal work from Catarina Ligendza (whom I've encountered before) and Bengt Rundgren (whom I haven't). Wolfgang Sawallisch conducts the opera in a brisk and energetic manner. Very enjoyable and highly recommended!
 To love and to hate! May 30, 2008
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
First: 8(sic) EIGHT CUTS ON THE SCORE!
1)The steersman song's 1st strophe (consequence - the delicate balance of a strict strophe (1st) and a "corrupted" strophe (2nd, by insertions of one the "tempest" motives) is broken!
2)The usual (but not more tolerable for that) in the final part of the last Daland/Dutchman duet.
3)The also usual (and also intolerable!) on the 2nd of the 3 spinning song's strophes.
4)The 1st of Erik's aria 2 strophes (revolting!)
5)At the Dutchman/Daland/Senta trio "stretta".
6)At the 1st phrase Dutchman's Crew song!
7)The most stupefying one: the 2(sic), two bars that separate Erik's aria and the Dutchman's entrance ("Verloren, ach verloren" etc.).
8) And the also also usual (and also...intolerable) right in the middle of Senta?Erik/Dutchman1s trio.
If one may doubt that things really grow old, this movie gives ample evidence of the contrary; gritted teeth for despair, half-open mouth for sadness, confusion, despair. Them major reason for this editing is that, back in 1975, opera people thought that Wagner operas form his first compositional period should be "corrected" (a kind of "wielandism")...this is a complete nonsense, because Wagner knew (almost) exactly how and what he wanted to write by that time (the changes from the very first version [now recorded on period instruments], the 1843 one and its ""Tristan-like-ending"" later version show preciselly the necessary alterations).
The press-release claims that this is the 2nd(1843) version, but it isn't, because the descending instrumental line just before the Dutchman's phrase "...Erfahre das Geschick...) is played only by the strings, not by the brass section...on the other hand, senta sings the ballade is sung a whole tone higher (A minor), a choice in the 2nd version, and the soprano's line just before the ballade, when she addresses the chorus, is also from the 1843version.
This,Sawallisch 2nd recording is a "via-media" between his savage Bayreuth version and his late, sleepy one (on Laserdisc, no longer available). The conductor's unique use of rubato in Wagner, his intelligent view that this is an work from the beginning/middle of the 19th century (the conversational passages are really classical im articulation and tempi), his structural and textural clarity are the main assets here; the sound picture is warm ( a little agressive sometimes, probably due to the limitations of the DVD medium, as far as the sound is concerned), with a acceptable "holographic" image, that just recedes at the loudest moments (the clash between the nowegians and the ghost crew). Transitions are expertly done, although the above-mentioned sleepnes raises his head already at some points. The weakest moment of the conductor is at the final trio and the Dutchman statement, when things are rushed and McIntyre, consequently, sounds a little puny.
This singer was at his height by then, with a true evenness of timbre, easyness in the whole part's tessitura, and a real understanding of the character's more fragile side (his "...weit komm'ich her, verwehrt bei Sturm und Wetter..." sounds almost with no vibrato, like a child), not flinching at any part of his monologue's, no matter how difficult it may be. His combination of text and articulation is also a paragon for the role, although he has some problems with "Umlaut" vowels.
Ligendza is second only to Varnay in the soprano part, for she not only sings it at its original pitch (as mentioned above), but hits all the notes dead-center, specially at the high B's ("...treu dir, bis zum Tod!"). His acting is a little stiff, but she isn't alone...
Winkler and Rundgren are what they are: top 2nd clas singers, Ek is a wide-eyed Steersman, chorus and Orch on "B" form.
How old the movie is? Well, suffice to day that the scene between the Dutch and norwegian crew are a good teaser of whar could be:"Night of the living dead; the musical", and the actual Senta's jump was like the one from who is going very carefully inside a very cold bath, and, since this s "original" Staged performance, why the Dutchman and Senta sink into a seemingly bubbling hot sea? Still, for the lack of better...
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