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''The Flying Dutchman'' (German: '), WWV 63, is a German-language opera, with libretto and music by Richard Wagner. Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography ''Mein Leben'' that he had been inspired to write the opera following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839. In his 1843 ''Autobiographic Sketch'', Wagner acknowledged he had taken the story from Heinrich Heine's retelling of the legend in his 1833 satirical novel ''The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski'' (''Aus den Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski'').〔Millington, Barry (Ed.) (1992), ''The Wagner Compendium: A Guide to Wagner's Life and Music''. Thames and Hudson Ltd., London. ISBN 0-02-871359-1 p. 277.〕 The central theme is redemption through love. Wagner conducted the premiere at the Semper Oper in Dresden in 1843. This work shows early attempts at operatic styles that would characterise his later music dramas. In ''Der fliegende Holländer'' Wagner uses a number of leitmotifs (literally, "leading motifs") associated with the characters and themes. The leitmotifs are all introduced in the overture, which begins with a well-known ocean or storm motif before moving into the Dutchman and Senta motifs. Wagner originally wrote the work to be performed without intermission – an example of his efforts to break with tradition – and, while today's opera houses sometimes still follow this directive, it is also performed in a three-act version. ==Composition history== By the beginning of 1839, the now 26-year-old Richard Wagner was employed as a conductor at the Court Theatre in Riga. His extravagant lifestyle plus the retirement from the stage of his actress wife, Minna, caused him to run up huge debts that he was unable to repay. Wagner was writing ''Rienzi'' and hatched a plan to flee his creditors in Riga, escape to Paris via London and make his fortune by putting ''Rienzi'' on to the stage of the Paris Opéra. However, this plan quickly turned to disaster: his passport having been seized by the authorities on behalf of his creditors, he and Minna had to make a dangerous and illegal crossing over the Prussian border, during which Minna suffered a miscarriage.〔Gutman, Robert W., ''Wagner – The Man, His Mind and His Music'', 1990, Harvest Books. ISBN 978-0-15-677615-8 p. 64.〕 Boarding the ship ''Thetis'', whose captain had agreed to take them without passports, their sea journey was hindered by storms and high seas. The ship at one point took refuge in the Norwegian fjords at Tvedestrand, and a trip that was expected to take eight days finally delivered Wagner to London three weeks after leaving Riga. Wagner's experience of Paris was also disastrous. He was unable to get work as a conductor, and the ''Opéra'' did not want to produce ''Rienzi''. The Wagners were reduced to poverty, relying on handouts from friends and from the little income that Wagner could make writing articles on music and copying scores. Wagner hit on the idea of a one-act opera on the theme of the ''Flying Dutchman'', which he hoped might be performed before a ballet at the ''Opéra''. The voyage through the Norwegian reefs made a wonderful impression on my imagination; the legend of the Flying Dutchman, which the sailors verified, took on a distinctive, strange colouring that only my sea adventures could have given it. Wagner wrote the first prose draft of the story in Paris early in May 1840, basing the story on Heinrich Heine's satire "The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski" ("Aus den Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski") published in ''Der Salon'' in 1834. In Heine's tale, the narrator watches a performance of a fictitious stage play on the theme of the sea captain cursed to sail forever for blasphemy. Heine introduces the character as a Wandering Jew of the ocean, and also added the device taken up so vigorously by Wagner in this, and many subsequent operas: the Dutchman can only be redeemed by the love of a faithful woman. In Heine's version, this is presented as a means for ironic humour; however, Wagner took this theme literally and in his draft, the woman is faithful until death.〔Vaughan, William (1982) in "''Der Fliegende Holländer''", ''English National Opera Guide'', Calder Publications Ltd; New Ed edition (Jun 1982), pp. 27–32 ISBN 0-7145-3920-1.〕 By the end of May 1841 Wagner had completed the libretto or ''poem'' as he preferred to call it. Composition of the music had begun during May to July of the previous year, 1840, when Wagner wrote Senta's Ballad, the Norwegian Sailors' song in act 3 ("") and the subsequent Phantom song of the Dutchman's crew in the same scene.〔Millington, Barry (ed.) ''The Wagner Compendium: A Guide to Wagner's Life and Music'', p. 278.〕 These were composed for an audition at the Paris ''Opéra'', along with the sketch of the plot. Wagner actually sold the sketch to the Director of the ''Opéra'', Léon Pillet, for 500 francs, but was unable to convince him that the music was worth anything.〔Gregor-Dellin, Martin (1983) ''Richard Wagner: his life, his work, his Century'', p. 106. William Collins, ISBN 0-00-216669-0〕〔In 1842, the theater presented an opera ' (''The Phantom Ship'') composed by Pierre-Louis Dietsch, which Wagner claimed had been developed from the scenario he had sold to the ''Opéra''. The similarity of Dietsch's opera to Wagner's—according to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' article on Dietsch by Jeffrey Cooper and Barry Millington—is slight, although Wagner's assertion is often repeated.〕Wagner composed the rest of the ''Der Fliegende Holländer'' during the summer of 1841, with the Overture being written last, and by November 1841 the orchestration of the score was complete. While this score was designed to be played continuously in a single act, Wagner later divided the piece into a three-act work. In doing so, however, he did not alter the music significantly, but merely interrupted transitions that had originally been crafted to flow seamlessly (the original one-act layout is restored in some performances). In his original draft Wagner set the action in Scotland, but he changed the location to Norway shortly before the first production staged in Dresden and conducted by himself in January 1843.〔T S Grey, Richard Wagner, Der Fliegende Holländer, Cambridge University Press 2000, p. 2 and p. 170〕 In his essay "A Communication to My Friends" in 1851, Wagner claimed that ''The Dutchman'' represented a new start for him: "From here begins my career as poet, and my farewell to the mere concoctor of opera-texts." Indeed, to this day the opera is the earliest of Wagner's works to be performed at the Bayreuth Festival, and, at least for that theatre, marks the start of the mature Wagner canon. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Flying Dutchman (opera)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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