Houston Grand Opera Presents 'The Flying Dutchman'

Houston Grand Opera opens its 64th season with The Flying Dutchman, Wagner’s gothic romance about the redeeming and transformative power of a woman’s love. (Photo: Jeff Rothman) 

Houston Grand Opera opens its 64th season with The Flying Dutchman, Wagner’s gothic romance about the redeeming and transformative power of a woman’s love. This new production by director Tomer Zvulun heightens the dramatic elements of the famous legend of a cursed ghost ship. The opera marks the company’s return to the Wortham Theater Center after being displaced by Hurricane Harvey for the entire 2017–18 season.

HGO’s first Wagner opera since the four-part Ring cycle, The Flying Dutchman is described as a haunting love story in which every seven years, the Dutchman comes ashore for a chance to break the curse that binds him to the desolate seas. His quest for true love leads him to Senta, a captain's daughter who has been obsessing over a mystifying portrait of him. When the two meet, the Dutchman is hopeful, but Senta must decide between her arranged marriage and her overpowering love for the Dutchman.

The opera will be sung in German with projected English translation and runs 2 hours and 20 minutes with no intermission.