The legend of The Flying Dutchman is said to have started in 1641 when a Dutch ship sank off the coast of the Cape of Good Hope:
Captain van der Decken was pleased. The trip to the Far East had been highly successful and at last, they were on their way home to Holland. As the ship approached the tip of Africa, the captain thought that he should make a suggestion to the Dutch East India Company (his employers) to start a settlement at the Cape on the tip of Africa, thereby providing a welcome respite to ships at sea.
He was so deep in thought that he failed to notice the dark clouds looming and only when he heard the lookout scream out in terror, did he realize that they had sailed straight into a fierce storm. The captain and his crew battled for hours to get out of the storm and at one stage it looked like they would make it. Then they heard a sickening crunch - the ship had hit treacherous rocks and began to sink. As the ship plunged downwards, Captain van der Decken knew that death was approaching. He was not ready to die and screamed out a curse: "I WILL round this Cape even if I have to keep sailing until doomsday!"
So, even today whenever a storm brews off the Cape of Good Hope, if you look into the eye of the storm, you will be able to see the ship and it's captain - The Flying Dutchman. Don't look too carefully, for the old folk claim that whoever sights the ship will die a terrible death.
Many people have claimed to have seen The Flying Dutchman. On 11 July 1881, the Royal Navy ship, the Bacchante was rounding the tip of Africa, when they were confronted with the sight of The Flying Dutchman. The midshipman, a prince who later became King George V (Elizabeth II's grandfather), recorded that the lookout man and the officer of the watch had seen the Flying Dutchman and he used these words to describe the ship:
"A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the mast, spars and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief."
It's a pity that the lookout saw the Flying Dutchman, for soon after on the same trip, he accidentally fell from a mast and died. Fortunately for the English royal family, the young midshipman survived the curse.
Condemned to sail the oceans for eternity with a ghostly crew of dead men, bringing death to all who sight his spectral ship. For centuries the Flying Dutchman was seen piloting his spectral vessel, its canvas spread, its masts creaking in a fearful wind. Sometimes, it was said, he led other ships astray, onto rocky shoals and hidden reefs.
Those who saw the captain himself claimed that he was bareheaded and repentant, clasping the wheel on the quarterdeck, pleading the heavens for mercy at last. In the rigging of his ship, some said, they could see a crew of skeletons, grinning miserably as they put on ever more sail.
Only through the love of a woman could he be released from his curse. So the unfortunate Dutch captain returns to land every seven years in a hopeless search for salvation, because the Dutchman can only find eternal peace in the arms of a faithful woman. Wagner's opera, "Der Fliegende Holländer," is loosely based on this version of the legend.
Click for a 30-minute movie on Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer
Condemned to sail the seven seas with his ghostly crew, the Dutchman clutches just one ray of hope. He is allowed ashore once every seven years and should he meet a woman who has a selfless love for him, he will be allowed to cease his unending wandering. Off the coast of Norway his ship meets Daland - who welcomes him into his home. Daland's daughter Senta is smitten with the stranger and forsakes her boyfriend Erik.
Of course, given that this is German romantic opera (Wagner's first undisputed success), tragedy ensues when, not realising the depth of Senta's feelings for him, the Dutchman sets sail, and she jumps off the cliff into the waves in a vain attempt to follow him...
Gottfried Wagner (Wagner's great-grandson), while not denying his musical genius, denounces his anti-Semitic forebear. In Herr Wagner's view his great-grandfather, Richard, was definitely an anti-Semite and the Wagner family later played an important and unambiguous role in supporting Hitler's cultural/political agenda.
Richard Wagner, says Gottfried, was one of the most able self-promoters of the 19th century. He was a megalomaniac who wanted to dominate every single element of the world in which he lived.
For Richard Wagner the central views that informed his massive output of writings and music were the superiority of the German culture; racism and anti-Semitism, and anti-feminism.
"Richard Wagner is my religion," said Adolf Hitler. Gottfried Wagner backs up his assertions with plenty of photographic evidence. He shows short films and photographs showing Hitler with Wagner family members at Bayreuth (the German town that has been home to the annual Wagner opera festival since 1876), as Gottfried says, the pictures speak for themselves.
Gottfried says the Wagner market has to confront the dark side of the man and myth that is Richard Wagner and his music. Those responsible for productions and Wagner scholars must prepare the public before the music begins. Why? Because the facts about Wagner have to be confronted and not swept under the carpet.
Composed nearly eight hundred years ago by an unnamed poet, The Nibelungenlied is the principal literary expression of those heroic legends of which Richard Wagner made such free use in The Ring.