The Flying Dutchman

Wagner’s opera appears at the festival in a new production, conducted by Simone Young—known to wider audiences as one of the judging panel on the BBC’s Maestro contest—and backed by the orchestra of the venerable Hamburg State Opera. Drawing inspiration from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Heinrich Hine’s The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski, it is a ghostly tale of devotion and damnation, often regarded as the first of Wagner’s mature works. Many of the composer’s subsequent ideas and motifs first appear in this work, and it's further notable for his directive that it be performed without interval.

Singing the lead will be veteran German bass-baritone Franz Grundheber, whose connection with the Hamburg State Opera goes back over 40 years, and who was recently made an honorary member of the Opera – a title shared only with the great Plácido Domingo.