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The Flying Dutchman sails to Salmar Classic screen

Live at the Met production runs Saturday, March 14
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Live at the Met’s presentation of Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman) plays the Salmar Classic on Saturday, March 14. (Contributed)

Gabriele Klein

Contributor

Quebec’s François Girard’s spellbinding new vision of The Flying Dutchman, the composer’s tale of a cursed sea captain doomed to sail the open ocean for eternity, plays the Salmar Classic on Saturday, March 14.

John Macfarlane’s sweeping sets turn the Met stage into a rich, layered tableau reminiscent of a vast oil painting. Valery Gergiev conducts a brilliant cast led by bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin as the Dutchman, with German soprano Anja Kampe as the devoted Senta, whose selfless love is what the Dutchman seeks. Bass Franz-Josef Selig is her father, Daland, and tenor Sergey Skorokhodov is her deserted former lover, Erik.

The world premiere of the Richard Wagner opera was at the Dresden Court Opera in 1843. The opera is set on the Norwegian coast with no time specified. The two lead roles represent archetypes to which the composer returned in his later works: the “otherworldly stranger” and the woman who sacrifices herself for his salvation.

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The score of Der Fliegende Holländer is an extraordinary combination of operatic lyricism, dramatic insight and magnificent effects. The worlds of nature and of the supernatural are magnificently evoked in the score. Many of the features of conventional opera (recitatives, arias, ensembles), can still be found in this early Wagner work, but the way he integrates them into the fabric of the score clearly foreshadows his later technique of a continuous musical flow.

The performance screens at 9:55 a.m.; run time is two hours and 25 minutes with no intermission.

On March 29, the Salmar screens the Bolshoi Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet.

The star-crossed lovers’ tragic fate inspired this ballet’s remarkable cinematic score, from the delicate theme of Juliet to the ominous Dance of the Knights. Bolshoi stars Ekaterina Krysanova and Vladislav Lantratov wholly embody the two eternal lovers in Alexei Ratmansky’s stunning evocation of love at first sight.

Start time is 1 p.m., run time is three hours and five minutes.

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