From around the world: Bayreuth.(International--Beyreuth Festival opens with Der Fliegende Hollander)(Opera Review)

The Bayreuth Festival opened this year with Claus Guth's fascinating new production of Der Fliegende Hollander (seen Aug. 16). A young Senta (portrayed magnificently by an unnamed child), costumed in a blue pinafore, appeared through much of the work. She carried a storybook and used marionettes to control much of the onstage action. One had the impression she had requested countless retellings of this tale, from both Daland and Mary, and the attachment of child to father played a crucial role in Guth's concept. He used two time frames, sometimes simultaneously, to juxtapose the alert child, in her upper-middle-class milieu, and the adult Senta, still idealizing her father and unable to liberate herself from her childhood. There was neither ship nor water on view, yet both were continuously suggested, a kind of psychological omnipresence.

A blood-red curtain represented the Dutchman's ship, descending along a huge staircase at stage right; when the curtain was drawn, one saw that behind it was a reverse image of the room below. A somewhat frumpy, grownup Senta was revealed, still dressed in a sailor jumper; Mary was old and blind now. The women's chorus, chicly outfitted, performed suggestively erotic choreography throughout the spinning scene; Senta was too inhibited to imitate them. Though her love for Erik seemed real, she could not take that crucial last step out of childhood.

Designer Christoph Schmidt created identical costumes and makeup for Daland and the Dutchman, who were indistinguishable ...