Opera Hong Kong stages The Flying Dutchman for Wagner anniversary

of important anniversaries taking place in the classical music world this year, notably those marking the birth, 200 years ago, of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner. Hong Kong's response has been to acknowledge both of these composers, with an Opera Viva performance of Verdi's scheduled for December, and Opera Hong Kong's production of Wagner's , which runs until October 13.

For anyone looking for a gentle entry into German master Wagner's fantasy world, is an ideal start. First performed in 1843, it's an early work of easily digestible proportions. Wagner's lengthy mature works will test any newcomer's stamina, but this comes in at a comfortable 135 minutes.

The opera is a product of its time. Representative of the 19th century's fascination with the supernatural, it was composed during the literary era of vampires, Frankenstein and hunchbacks in Gothic cathedrals. If the opera's central theme of redemption through love sounds too lofty an ideal to chew on, picture the closing scene, where an obsessed young woman throws herself off a cliff in the grip of undying love for a maritime ghost, and is then rewarded by a radiant ascent into heaven with her spectral heartthrob.

Spooky? Wagner thought so, having been caught in a treacherous storm while travelling by ship from Riga, in Latvia, to London a few years earlier. During the journey, the crew told him a folklore saga that was to become the basis of his opera. Having been cursed by Satan, a Dutch sea captain (who, supernaturally enough, doesn't have a mortal name) is forced to endlessly roam the oceans.

His only escape is that every seven years, his ship is allowed to make landfall so he can find a wife who will remain faithful until his death. In Wagner's version, this is Senta, daughter of Daland, the Norwegian sea captain who strikes a deal with the ghostly Dutchman, bartering his daughter's hand in marriage for financial enrichment.

Opera Hong Kong is presenting the performance jointly with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department in a production from Deutsche Oper am Rhein.