David Hughes of the Santa Fe and New York Wagner Societies will be our presenter for a discussion of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman.
Vivace meets six times a year and over the past three years, the book selections have been aligned with the operas being staged during the Santa Fe Opera Summer Festival. For example, Pushkin’s poem Eugene Onegin was clearly the source and inspiration for the opera of the same name. However, sometimes the source for an opera is not readily identifiable.
In his discussion of The Flying Dutchman, Mr. Hughes will reference material that may have influenced Wagner’s story. He has provided an excerpt from The Works of Heinrich Heine — The Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewopski about a doomed sea captain. The 85-page book is in the public domain, however since only one seven-page chapter is relevant, we have provided a link to Chapter Seven for your convenience.
Another legendary ghost ship was immortalized by the early Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which will also be part of our discussion.
The photo above is the cover of a book by Ruprecht Frieling, a noted author, critic, and Wagner expert. The book is a retelling of the opera The Flying Dutchman, which according to some readers, “makes you feel like you are on the bow of the ship.” The book is currently available on Amazon.com.
We hope you will join us on Monday, January 9 at 6:00 pm MST for our discussion of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. A link for the Zoom discussion will be emailed on the morning of January 9 to all registrants.
Link to Excerpt from The Works of Heinrich Heine
Link to Rime of the Ancient Mariner