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Wagner.
Wagner received his idea for “The Flying Dutchman” from a dramatic episode in his own life. At the time of the production of his opera, “The Novice of Palermo,” he was living beyond his means in Russia, in the town of Riga.
The failure of his opera left him heavily in debt, and the importunities of creditors decided him to escape in disguise from Russian territory. Minna, his wife, masqueraded as the wife of a lumberman, who took her as far as Pillau, in north Prussia, to which place Wagner was assisted by a different route. From that seaport he embarked with his wife, an opera and a half, a diminutive purse, and a Newfoundland dog, on a sailing-vessel to London, and thence to Paris.
Before leaving Riga, Wagner had read the legend of the Flying Dutchman, who was condemned to sail forever till the love of a faithful woman should release him from this curse. Among the wild storms of Wagner’s own voyage, in the wild romance of the passage through Northern fiords, he became obsessed by the story.
Perhaps it was not only the charm of the music of the sea and the lilt of the sailor’s songs which inspired him, but also his own heart’s craving for a cessation from wandering, and a home blessed by peace.
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Argument.
When the curtain rises we gaze on a wide storm-tossed ocean; the ship of the Norwegian mariner, Daland, lies at anchor near shore. Presently the sails of the Flying Dutchman’s vessel emerge, blood-red, from the blackness of the storm. The Dutchman steps ashore, for another term of seven years is past, and he is free to seek once more on earth the love of a faithful woman, whose devotion shall save him from the curse of wandering.
When Daland reappears on deck he sees the Dutchman and greets him, although he is a stranger, with open-hearted cordiality. The Dutchman begs asylum for a few days in Daland’s home, a few miles away, offering Daland in return a share of the treasures he has amassed. To this Daland consents.