The Flying Dutchman, cursed by the devil, must sail the seas for eternity unless he can find a woman whose fidelity will redeem him. Senta, a young, impressionable girl, falls in love with the portrait of the doomed dutchman. When he appears, she recognizes him and quickly pledges herself to him. She willingly makes the ultimate sacrifice and is his salvation, as the first of many Wagnerian women whose love redeems their wayward men.
This is a cautionary tale but a mythic one, nevertheless. Desirée will discuss the real and supernatural elements of the Dutchman’s legend, its mythic implications, and the riveting score of Richard Wagner.
Please join the Santa Fe Opera Guild on Monday, April 17 at 6:00 PM for “Myth and the Flying Dutchman.” Check-in will begin at 5:30 PM.
Admission is $10 for members and $20 for non-members. To attend this event, please click on the registration link below. If you have questions, please contact events@santafeoperaguild.org.
Desirée Mays, just back from a talk at the Metropolitan Opera on “Mythos and Wagner’s Mythic Men,” is an international speaker on opera, a radio producer, and author of the Opera Unveiled book series. She is known locally as the preview speaker for twenty seasons at SFO's Cantina Preview Dinners. Desirée has given talks on Zoom for numerous opera companies and Wagner Societies. Next on her calendar is a discussion, just in time for Easter, on “Religion and Opera” for the English National Opera’s television program. This will air as a Zoom that will be seen in London and the UK.