The Dutchman Flies in Sydney

Huge sails soared to the ceiling of the Sydney Opera House concert hall on Saturday night. A sailing ship ... oh  yes ...  The Flying Dutchman no less.

Sails in the Sydney Opera House concert hall.

The Sydney Symphony together with a cast of fantastic singers presented a wonderful concert performance of Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. The orchestra, the soloists and the very large choir on both sides of the auditorium were exceptionally good. They got a wildly appreciative reception from the audience and a well deserved excellent review.  A video was projected onto the huge sails during the performance, which was successful in augmenting the music rather than distracting from it.

Sydney Opera house last Saturday night

Last year Sydney Symphony put on a fantastic concert version of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades and now, after this performance of The Flying Dutchman (there is another performance this evening), my bet is that the Sydney Symphony will be winning a lot of new subscribers, refugees from Opera Australia which is concentrating on balancing its books by putting on musicals.

Go Sydney Symphony!