21 October 2024

"The Flying Dutchman Overture" - Richard Wagner

Continuing with my spooky theme—and in hopes of pleasing the classical music lovers among my readers—today I present the Overture from The Flying Dutchman (original German, Der fliegende Holländer), an opera by Richard Wagner.

This was the first piece of classical music I ever heard that really spoke to me. I was in the fifth grade when we were taken by bus to the high school auditorium to hear a presentation designed to introduce kids to the wonders of classical music. And this piece certainly had the desired effect on me!

The conductor introduced this selection with the tale upon which the opera is based. As he told it, a Dutch captain was trying to round the Cape of Good Hope (also called the Cape of Storms) at the southernmost tip of Africa. He vowed that he would accomplish this, even if God Himself should forbid it.

We all know that vows like that never turn out well! The captain and his crew were cursed to sail the seas forever, never to come to their home port.

The opera, of course, offers the possibility of redemption: if the captain can find a wife who will be faithful to him, the curse can be broken. He is allowed to come to land somewhere once every seven years to attempt to accomplish this.

With that story churning in my head, I found that the music—for the first time ever—created pictures in my mind. I could see the waves crashing, the ship tossing.

Can you?

When I visited my German host family at Christmas in 1980, one of the entertainments they provided me was a night at the opera, to see this very opera. I was ecstatic!

I’m so fond of the story that when I was making cloth books for my best friend’s granddaughter, this is one of the stories I chose to turn into a cloth book…with a happier ending, of course!

If you are interested in buying the fabric to make this cloth book, you can find it in my Spoonflower shop here.

Thoughts?