SAFFRON OPERA GROUP PRESENTS
DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER
INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED CAST IN WAGNER’S TEMPESTUOUS TALE OF DOOMED LOVE
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2025 at 2.30pm
‘Saffron Opera is on top form… a brilliant account’ Seen and Heard International on Die Meistersinger, 2024
‘Passionate commitment’ The Guardian
Having garnered outstanding reviews in the national press for performances of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, Die Meistersinger, and Tannhäuser – and other works by Mozart, Stravinsky and Strauss – the enterprising Saffron Opera Group now offers audiences a concert performance of Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman).
Wagner’s opera tells the story of The Dutchman, an anguished figure who is doomed to sail the oceans for all eternity as a punishment for blasphemy. He is allowed on shore once every seven years and if, in his short stay, he can find a wife who will be true to him unto death, his curse will be lifted. He meets Senta, the daughter of a Norwegian captain, and for a short time it seems as if their love will triumph. But then his misinterpretation of what he thinks he overhears being said between Erik and Senta overtakes him and, fearing that he is dragging Senta into his awful fate, he renounces her. The despairing girl proves her ‘love unto death’ by flinging herself into the sea to drown – and thus lifts the curse.
The storm-tossed score contains some of Wagner’s most immediately accessible and powerful music, and in the anguished figure of The Dutchman the composer created a character of enormous complexity and fascination. Taking on this demanding role is Simon Thorpe, who previously appeared with SOG as Fritz Kothner in Die Meistersinger. He has sung with all of the major UK opera companies, and many international houses too. Reviewing his performance as The Dutchman at Longborough Festival, Seen and Heard International wrote ‘Thorpe was vocally and dramatically convincing from the first.’ When he sang Wotan in Die Walküre for the London Opera Company, Wagner News recorded that ‘His grief and rage gave his rendition heroic stature… His baritone has a lovely chestnut colour, beautifully suited to the role.’
Singing the role of self-sacrificing Senta is rising star Mari Wyn Williams, whose powerful and shining voice is already causing great excitement in Wagnerian circles. When she performed Senta for Opera North, The Guardian reported that it was ‘an outstanding company debut.’ ‘Great emotional power,’ said The Reviews Hub, and Bachtrack called her ‘a consummate Wagnerian.’
She is joined by tenor Charne Rochford as her lovestruck suitor Erik. Already a hit with SOG audiences for his dazzling performance as Walther, the hero of Die Meistersinger, Rochford once again brings his bright clarion Heldentenor sound to Saffron Hall. ‘First rate,’ said The Guardian; ‘Brilliantly expansive and impeccably controlled,’ wrote musicomh.com.
The internationally renowned bass Andrew Greenan returns to the company to sing the role of Daland, Senta’s jolly money-loving father. His huge sound, enormous charisma, and focused dramatic power have already dazzled SOG audiences in Die Meistersinger, Parsifal, Tannhäuser, Die Walküre, Siegfried and also as Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier. Elsewhere he has sung major Wagnerian roles at The Royal Opera, La Scala, and The Metropolitan Opera.
Completing the cast are rising young tenor Andrew Henley as Daland’s on-board Steersman, and celebrated British mezzo Yvonne Howard as Senta’s nurse, Mary. Opera Magazine said that Henley was ‘immediately convincing… the best of the cast,’ in Britten’s Owen Wingrave. Yvonne Howard has worked with all the major UK companies, appearing in all of the major Wagnerian mezzo roles.
The orchestra is conducted by SOG’s musical director and conductor Michael Thorne, who has successfully led all SOG’s previous performances to enormous acclaim. The performance will also include the largest chorus ever assembled by the company, comprising local singers from Saffron Walden and Cambridge, members of several highly-regarded London chamber choirs, and participants from the LSO chorus. Last year, The Times praised the SOG chorus in glowing terms: ‘The performance’s special glory… [was] vigorous singing from the full-throated amateur chorus.’
Saffron Opera Group was founded by opera-loving Saffron Walden residents Paul Garland and Francis Lambert in 2013, and is now run by Lambert and Jeff Thomson. Its inaugural production was Wagner’s Die Meistersinger in 2014, and its ambitious concerts of The Ring Cycle and Parsifal and Tannhaüser have been among the most successful UK Wagnerian events of recent years.
Saffron Opera Group performs Der fliegende Holländer
2.30pm, Sunday 14 September, 2025
Saffron Hall
Audley End Road
Saffron Walden
CB11 4UH
Box Office
0845 548 7650
www.saffronhall.com
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Press enquiries: francis.lambert@btinternet.com – 07971016633