"The Flying Dutchman"

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 51, 6 July 1928, Page 7

"The Flying Dutchman"

TO BE PLAYED BY 2YA ORCHESTRA

NEXT Monday evening Wagner’s famous work, "" "The Flying Dutchman," will be played by the 2YA orchestra, and listeners can look forward to enjoying a musical treat, "The Flying Dutchman" is the legend of a Dutch sea captain who swore that he would round the Cape of Good Hope-"though Hell itself pre-vail"-and as a punishment for his impios vow was doomed to sail the seas for all eternity. He became known as "The Flying Dutchman." Onze in every seven years he was allowed to land, and, if he eould find a maiden who could be faithful unto death, she would bring him relief from the curse. When the opera opens, Daland, the Norwegian 364 captain is making port when he sees the mysterious vessel with blood-red sails close behind him. The two captains meet on shore and Daland takes the stranger to his home. Senta, Daland’s romantically inclined daughter, knows the story of the Flying Dutchman, and when he arrives with her father she recognises "the spectre man’ from a picture she possesses. ‘Intuitively Senta knows that to her is to be given the task of saving this man from eternal perdition. By her faith and love the redemption of this man’s soul is possible, and the wandering sailor shall no longer ery to

heaven in vain that he may be allowed to find his grave and be at rest. Love springs up between them, and their coming wedding is announced, Senta, before the coming of the mysterious stranger, had a youthful lover called Eric. The great event which has come ‘into her life has eclipsed all the feeling she had for her former lover.: Eric, however, returning from a journey, learns of the wedding, and hastens to Senta, In heartbroken accents he pleads, and reproaches her, The Dutchman chances to overhear.-A terrible thought possesses him. Senta has been faithless to Eric! She may be faithless in turn to him, ‘and so his dream of having at last discovered a faithful woman is shattered. Hurriedly he boards his ship and weighs anchor. A great storm has arisen. Standing on the cliff, Senta sees the blood-red sails flying away from her. With hands out-streteched to Heaven she casts herself into the sea. The wild wind carries far her ery, "I will be faithful unto Death."’ As the storm-tossed words reach the Dutchman, he is meeting the full force of the gale. With a great plunge, the phantom ship sinks. Immediately the sea calms down, and two figures rise from the waters. The Dutchman and Senta are clasped in each other’s arms. Faith has brought redemption, and led to eternal happiness,