Der Fliegende Holländer

In this 1843 opera, Richard Wagner expressed for the first time the thematic obsession that would color all his mature work: redemption through love—in this case, the decision of the beautiful Senta to sacrifice herself in order to free the Dutchman, who is cursed to sail the seas endlessly until saved by a faithful woman. In this outstanding 2010 production from the Netherlands Opera, conductor Hartmut Haenchen elicits glorious playing from the Netherlands Philharmonic to match the towering performances by both Juha Uusitalo as the Dutchman and Catherine Naglestad as Senta. Equally fine are Marco Jentzsch as Senta's lover, Erik, and Oliver Ringelhahn as the Steersman, while veteran Robert Lloyd remains in amazingly strong voice as Senta's father, Daland. As with many European stagings nowadays, Der Fliegende Holländer is not presented in period form: the modernist set here includes glass doors and a swimming pool, while the costumes are mostly contemporary, with some choristers wearing garish wigs. But the effect isn't disastrous, because the work is fairly abstract and the updating is relatively subdued. The excellent camerawork—which during the extensive orchestral interludes offers effective black-and-white close-ups of the conductor and individual players as well as ocean shots—is backed by superb audio, with DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital stereo options on DVD, and DTS-HD 5.1 and LPCM stereo on Blu-ray. Extras include a cast gallery and a behind-the-scenes featurette with comments from Haenchen, the singers, and stage director Martin Kušej. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)