Singer

At the age of almost 80, Giuseppe Verdi, who had already achieved mythical status, once again achieved sensational success with this opera. Using the brilliant libretto of the much younger Arrigo Boito as a starting point, he created a masterpiece of comic opera after five decades of tragic works. Although it is based on the same material as Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Verdi succeeded in writing a distinct, subversive version of the comedy.

Falstaff

Bebelplatz

The Dutchman is a cursed man, an outsider, a driven individual. Richard Wagner came upon the character of the famous drifter via Heinrich Heine, who lent the Romantic material his typically ironic touch. Wagner’s interest was tweaked not by Heine’s packaging of the story, which relegated the Dutchman-based action to the margins, but by the tale of the enigmatic mariner, which led to him writing his first opera about the man’s quest for a woman who could offer him redemption. The Dutchman, restlessly plying the borderlands between life and death, encounters Senta, who appears equally ill-at-ease and rootless and yearns for a masculine character, the Dutchman, a figment of her imagination.

The Flying Dutchman

Deutsche Oper Berlin

The "Flying Dutchman" is different from the men who populate Senta's provincial world. An outsider like them, he is also shrouded in a dark doom. The Dutchman once cursed God; as punishment, he must sail the oceans in his ghost ship until a loving woman redeems him from his curse. Senta is destined to turn the legendary sailor's fate around... Director Vasily Barkhatov tells the story of Senta's quest for romantic self-assertion with cinematic intensity.

Der flie­gen­de Hol­län­der

German Oper am Rhein

In order to free her husband Florestan, Leonore disguises herself as a male prison guard and sneaks into a prison. Beethoven’s only opera is infused with an unwavering belief in the power of hope. The powerful liberation music at the end anticipates the «Ode to Joy» from his Ninth Symphony. Andreas Homoki separates the plot from its bourgeois comic light opera context, focusing instead on the utopian idea of world brotherhood and the universal themes of humanity that Beethoven chose as his central focus. Klaus Florian Vogt, one of the most outstanding tenors of our time, will appear as Florestan.

Soprano

Gabriela Scherer

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 20 - Dec 7, 2025

Falstaff · Staatsoper Berlin

3 - 16 May, 2026

Fidelio · Opernhaus Zürich

Past events

Nov 20 - Dec 7, 2025

Falstaff · Staatsoper Berlin

Feb 16 - Apr 26, 2025

The Flying Dutchman · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Future and recently performed repertoire

Sit down in The Flying Dutchman by Wagner

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Eleanor in Fidelio by Beethoven

Opernhaus Zürich

Mrs. Alice Ford in Falstaff by Verdi

Staatsoper Berlin

About

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