The overture to _The Flying Dutchman_ gives the condensed and essential
drama. We are relieved of the avaricious father who is delighted at the
thought of handing his daughter to the mysterious stranger; nor does one
have to hear the bleatings of the saphead lover. No wonder Senta
preferred the Dutchman.
Wagner’s overture is a stormy seascape. The Dutchman knew no calm seas.
The music that typifies him is one of Wagner’s happiest inventions. Poor
Vanderdecken sings nothing so compelling, not even in his monologue. One
hears enough of Senta’s ballad in the overture; one is not tempted to
laugh at the operatic spinning wheels that stick when they should
revolve; one does not find Wagner trying to write with Italian
melodiousness.
* * *
The overture was sketched at Meudon near Paris in September, 1841, and
completed and scored at Paris in November of that year. In 1852, Wagner
changed the ending. In 1860 he wrote another ending for the Paris
concerts.
It opens _allegro con brio_ in D minor, 6-4, with an empty fifth,
against which horns and bassoons give out the “Flying Dutchman” motive.
There is a stormy development, through which this motive is kept
sounding in the brass. There is a hint at the first theme of the main
body of the overture, an _arpeggio_ figure in the strings, taken from
the accompaniment of one of the movements in the Dutchman’s first air in
Act I. The storm section over, there is an episodic _andante_ in F major
in which wind instruments give out phrases from Senta’s ballad of the
Flying Dutchman (Act II). The episode leads directly to the main body of
the overture, _allegro con brio_ in D minor, 6-4, which begins with the
first theme. This theme is developed at great length with chromatic
passages taken from Senta’s ballad. The “Flying Dutchman” theme comes in
episodically in the brass from time to time. The subsidiary theme in F
major is taken from the sailors’ chorus, “Steuermann, lass’ die Wacht!”
(Act III). The second theme, the phrase from Senta’s ballad already
heard in the _andante_ episode, enters _fortissimo_ in the full
orchestra, F major, and is worked up brilliantly with fragments of the
first theme. The “Flying Dutchman” motive reappears _fortissimo_ in the
trombones. The _coda_ begins in D major, 2-2. A few rising _arpeggio_
measures in the violins lead to the second theme, proclaimed with the
full force of the orchestra. The theme is now in the shape found in the
_allegro_ peroration of Senta’s ballad. It is worked up energetically.
The overture is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn,
two clarinets, four horns, two bassoons, two trumpets, three trombones,
bass tuba, kettledrums, harp, strings.