Wagner: Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman)[Blu-ray]

To trash this shows a lack of imagination. I thought this production had excellent camera angles, with very nice closeups of all characters. Im a fan of Bryn after his Woton in The Mets Machine Ring so I knew I would "really dig it". Kempe was very good with the typical BIG Wagnerian voice. Mr Saliman is always good as was the fellow who played Erik, Marco Jentsch..very good. If your into stage productions this staging takes some imagination as you travel through the opera. Once you get the hang of where this production is going and interpret it in the context the director wanted I found it very well done. Sit back with a beverage of your choice,or not, and just go flow with the flow. Opera should not be just interpreted one way. Wagner being Wagner would like it done in many ways as long as it was being presented. I always know it was an impressive performance when the next few days I'm still thinking about it. Great bargain pricewise and a very nice night at the opera..... I love Wagner.

Enjoyed the music, but was hoping for a more traditional set.

Gran papel de Bryn Terfel, fantástica Anja Kampe!!! La puesta en escena es bastante moderna, es como si todo pasara en una oficina. Eso, para quienes estamos acostumbrados a las puestas en escena más clásicas, hace más complejo y desafiante el aprobar estas propuestas modernas. De todas maneras es una gran propuesta, muy bien cantada!!! Interesante y muy recomendable!!!

First..I'm not a critic and I like what I like. Very much enjoyed Bryn Terfel and Matti S. in their roles. The other singers were very good also. DID NOT LIKE THE PRODUCTION!!!! If I wanted to see something from the 30'/40's I would have bought that. There was no indication of sea fearing ships or sea fearing men, women spinning, etc. Took away from the whole story. And with "Senta" running all over the place was very much a distraction and did not see any need for the African Native addition. Tacky. But ..... we all have our opinions. I bought it because of Bryn Terfel and Matti S. Otherwise I would have given it 5+ stars.

I have seen this opera five times and to me it always "smell" of sea Not this boring production. I suggest future buyers to play this DVD without Video.Terfel has the required voice but not the presence. I never felt any pity for him. There is no sense of mystery, the phantom ship appears nowhere. The seamstresses look like Nazi bank employees so are the sailors, who stii call themselves "seereiters" In fact the women look like men in travesti.The oldest recording I have of this opera is with Josef Metternich, and his is my favorite.To me the only authentic of late productions is by Simon Estes.

We need 2 categories of stars. Performance? 5 stars. Production? 1 star.I am trying with all my heart to accept modernized stagings of classic operas. Productions designers are doing everything possible to prevent me from loving new stagings. They are probably damaging the future of opera with self-centered, oblique productions.So the 40's version of Faust with Kaufmann won me over to accepting some updates to operatic productions. I could take the Met's new Ring Cycle using the machine though I still prefer the 80's Met production because so much more feeling is conveyed by the singers.I love the Flying Dutchman. It's short, interesting and packed with tunes that make you want to sing along. I wanted to love this production. I just don't. The business guys navigating the world for riches was okay. Acceptable. But anyone new to the opera and watching this production with subtitles on would be terribly confused. I've not seen a helmsman in a business office nor weavers singing of spinning all day on a typewriter.The "party scene" is where I pretty much lost all hope. Forcing the black man to drink---presumably a rape enactment of Africa---was a bit over the top and nothing to do with Wagner's opera. The rape victim turns savage and shoots, with arrows, a few of the guys after his trusty spear becomes a bow when he gets behind the curtain...I guess.This begs the question. Does our Dutchman represent capitalism gone bad? No ship, no crew. Meh. And what's with the weird face paint? And fur coat? Terfel is sweating like he's trapped in a sauna...the coat was a bad idea. Watch closely and you can see a big sweat blob hit the desk as he leans over it. Ew.The ending was funny and merciful. So what exactly was Senta's decision as expressed in this hodgepodge? Maybe she just wanted out of this opera. Can't blame her.Well, the singing is great and I had fun watching it. (I received a Region 0 BluRay DVD by the way)You can't hate anything with singing this good. Kampe by the way sings a beautiful Senta. I would love this performance on CD.Let's get this same cast together and produce a traditional Dutchman for this BluRay generation. Please.

Posted for my father. He thought it was an excellent DVD and enjoyed it very much.