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“Essentially, the opera begins where the legend ends. In the legend, what has gone before is paramount whereas in the opera, it’s the consequences, Senta’s self-sacrifice, and the Flying Dutchman himself that are central. Lofty love and other such romantic notions. The only interesting point in the plot of that opera is the attempt to portray the Flying Dutchman’s end, in other words his salvation. Salvation from what? From forever roaming the seas, from loneliness. But surely total annihilation cannot be the only salvation from loneliness? What should he do, the Flying Dutchman of the real world, not the operatic one? The one whose ‘grief is deeper than the seas he sails?’ Does he settle accounts with non-life or continue living it, examining the depths of this inhospitable world, usi
