Alan Held and the Zombie Brides in The Flying Dutchman, Washington National Opera, 2008, photo by Karin Cooper

On Saturday night Washington National Opera returned to the stage of the Kennedy Center Opera House, with a production of Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer. Wagner wrote his own libretto, drawing on a folk legend retold in a Heinrich Heine novella. The Flying Dutchman is a ghost ship, and its unnamed Dutch captain is condemned, because of a deal with the devil, to sail the ship for eternity. He is allowed to disembark once every seven years to search for a woman whose self-sacrificing love can redeem him.

This production is a revival of the production from New York City Opera, directed by Stephen Lawless. A skewed rectangle of wood frames the raked stage, and backdrops help situate the action, most effectively with rising and falling images that give the impression of watching a ship's deck pitching on the waves. Lawless has either not read the libretto closely or he has attempted to recast the story, but not in a way that shocks or surprises: it just makes the opera a bit of a muddle.

Lawless has taken two details from the story and tried to explain them with his staging, magnifying them far out of proportion as a result. First, the angel that arranges the opportunity for the Dutchman to seek a wife on land every seven years is represented by a clumsy wooden bird wing gliding through the stage (sets designed by Giles Cadle). To add to the confusion, the wing first appears with the red light that heralds the Dutchman's approach, long before he has even mentioned the angel. The libretto does specify that the Dutchman's ship has "blood‑red sails and black masts," although we never see the sails, just the red light, even emanating from inside Daland's little treasure box (lighting design by Joan Sullivan-Genthe). Second, instead of a spectral crew, the Dutchman is attended by seven zombie brides, some of them with their breasts partially exposed, not a confusion of the story with Duke Bluebeard's Castle, but "the fate awaiting those who break their vow to me." Otherwise, the costumes were mostly generic, except for the Dutchman, who in a stovepipe hat and extravagant fur coat (the libretto specifies only "black clothing," twice) often looked like he was in a gorilla suit (costume design by Ingeborg Bernerth).

It was a mostly satisfying evening musically, thanks to veteran conductor Heinz Fricke, whose solid beat and sense of Wagnerian scope guided the performance. The brass were regal when necessary (excepting the horns, uncertain of attack at too many crucial moments), and the winds plaintive of tone and true of intonation, allowed by Fricke's sure hand to pierce the texture, along with the harp's sparkle. The chorus had a pointed sound, reduced somewhat in number, but needed to be much more attentive to Fricke's precise beat. Wagner published the opera divided according to operatic conventions (overture, arias, acts, scenes) but later preferred it to be performed as one continuous music drama. The audience personified the work's dual nature, half applauding at the first two or three conventional breaks, only to be hissed at by Wagnerian purists.

Jennifer Wilson in The Flying Dutchman, Washington National Opera, 2008, photo by Karin Cooper

Baritone Alan Held, making his debut in the title role, held attention by his intense stage presence more than his voice, which lightened at both extremes. Held seemed to be reserving his forces in the first act, opening up at the meeting with Senta but ultimately remaining, not inappropriately, a Dutchman more of intense mystery than of compelling power. In sheer volume the Daland of Israeli bass-baritone Gidon Saks initially surpassed Held, but the voice was not always wielded with subtlety and seemed to run slightly ragged later, as was the case with Saks's Hunding in last season's Die Walküre (but less so).

Soprano Jennifer Wilson took on her first Senta in a triumphant return to Washington, where she first sang in the WNO chorus, and the current members gave her a warm ovation at the curtain call. Wilson has a puissant top, put to impressive use in the final scene, and a buttery tone. Compressing the voice to the luminous floating sound that suits much of the role was not necessarily her strong suit (compared to Gwyneth Jones, for example), at least not yet. Held and Wilson's voices were beautifully matched for the Senta-Dutchman duet, transformed into a strange domestic scene where she serves him dinner. With the supporting roles, however, the casting quickly became disappointing. Ian Storey had a swallowed, unfocused tone as Erik, the mullet-sporting hunter in love with Senta, dipping under pitch at the top of his range. Andreas Conrad came closer to cracking with each statement of the Steersman's famous song, and Janice Meyerson's Mary was matronly, when she could make herself heard over the orchestra.

Most disappointing was the conclusion of the opera, in which Senta is supposed to fling herself from a rocky ridge into the sea, after which the ghost ship sinks and the Dutchman and Senta, transfigured, rise from the water. Wilson simply walked through the crowd, who were ostensibly trying to stop her, and raised her arms at the back of the scene. A few minutes later, an image of two birds appeared, as did two hapless members of the sailors' chorus, who apparently thought they could cross the stage at that point, not realizing that the curtain would open to reveal the final scene. It was a fitting end to a clutzy production. With those reservations aside, however, this is still the first Dutchman from WNO since 1992, and you should not wait another 15 years.

Washington National Opera's production of The Flying Dutchman continues through April 10. Tickets remain for the performances on April 2, 7, and 10. Students and young professionals, ages 18 to 35, should join the Generation O program, to qualify for reduced-price tickets to certain performances.