Tarot Imagery at the Opera?

Last Week my husband and I got tickets to see the opera, a production of Wagner's _The_Flying_Dutchman_. The general storyline is that the Dutchman is a ship's captain who was cursed to sail the seas until Judgement Day. However, an angel took pity on him and gave him one release: once every seven years he is allowed to come to shore and search for a woman who will love him truly and faithfully.

The other players in the tale are a greedy sea captain convinced by the Dutchman to give away his daughter in return for treasure; Senta, the daughter, who has fallen in love with the idea of the Dutchman's legend; Erik, Senta's lover, who believes that he must 'save' her from the phantom Dutchman.

The story was very grand and operatic, revolving around the theme of Fate, and escaping one's Fate. Which is what made the set designer's choice to put a giant wheel in the center of the stage so fascinating for me. Literally, the wheel was supposed to represent the ship's wheel, as well as the spinning wheel of the textile factory where Senta works. But the first thing I thought of when I saw it was "Wheel of Fortune". The Dutchman is caught on Fortune's Wheel, going round and round forever, searching for an escape. In fact, the Dutchman makes one of his most dramatic arias while standing at the hub of the wheel. And when Senta sacrifices herself, declaring her love for the Dutchman "unto death" and thus saving his soul, her body is draped across the rim of the wheel, in an image that reminded me of the RWS Wheel.

I'm convinced that this could not be accidental. But who created this combination of theme and imagery? Wagner, the original author? The director? The set designer? I'm curious...

Hi Northern Tigress,

as far as I know Richard Wagner himself wrote the libretto to "Der fliegende Holländer" ("Flying Dutchman" in English.) Both the English and the German Wikipedia say so, as well.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_fliegende_Holländer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Fliegende_Holländer

The idea of the spinning wheel will for sure be an idea by the intendant of the particular opera house you were seeing the opera. I remember seeing it years ago with a huge wooden ship on the left side of the stage and a house and a shore on the right side of the stage. You see, different ideas from different intendants.

I really like the spinning wheel version for it's Tarot symbolism, but I think you were one of the few people seeing it this way. Everyday people who aren't into Tarot or Northern traditions (you know, the Nornes and their wheel) wouldn't recognise it as the Wheel of Fate.

Good you had such a fine evening at the opera! I like being at the opera myself.

Astraea Aurora

The Wheel of Fate, or Wheel of Fortune, is a very ancient image, which predates the Tarot by some thousands of years and is found beyond the Nordic tradition. However, because it has also been associated with Tarot, particularly in recent years in the West, it's very possible that the director was consciously inspired by the Tarot image of the Wheel of Fortune, and in particular the famous RWS card, using it to depict that famous ancient symbol of Fate. Certainly the RWS could not have influenced Wagner, as the deck didn't exist back then. He might have been in contact with other older tarot decks, but I don't think Tarot was that popular in his day in Germany. You never know, though. He had a wide-ranging curiosity and a passion for myth and symbols. But I tend to agree with Astreae Aurora that this was an interpretation of the idea of Fate - and idea central to the opera - for that particular production. There are other symbols associated with Fate, which might equally be used in such a context. In the Nordic tradition, the Norns and the Well of Fate, for example.

It sounds like a beautiful production of Der fliegende Holländer, btw.

Oh FireMaiden! We need you!

Where is our songstress, our VocalVirgin, our DivaDamsel, our MusicalMademoiselle?

Oh FireMaiden! We need you!

Debra said:

Where is our songstress, our VocalVirgin, our DivaDamsel, our MusicalMademoiselle?

Oh FireMaiden! We need you!

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LOL, my thoughts exactly.

The whole story of the opera is spun in and out of Senta's spinning song. She sits at the spinning wheel (in the second act) and tells the whole story. While she spins, and throws herself into the character of the Dutchman, the spinning wheel becomes the captain's wheel.

In literature, spinning is always related to the "weaving of fate" -- as fudu mentioned -- the three Norns who weave man's fate will be important in Wagner's ring cycle.

The director of the production you saw chose to set Senta in a textile factory -- but Wagner meant her to be in her father's house, spinning wool with the other women in the village. In the first act, the Dutchman would have been singing his aria at the helm of his ship.

Spinning in a fairytale (I read this on wiki somewhere) -- usually sets up the introduction of the supernatural. The girls spin to create a good wind to send their loved ones home, and Senta's spinning conjures up the Dutchman. Perhaps it is that spinning has a hypnotic power, and the wheel puts us in the altered state where halucinations can appear.

Also spinning is a magical act because when women spin, it is their way of turning straw into gold -- the straw the sheep eat -- grows the wool - the wool they spin is sold for gold, it was one of the only ways women had of creating wealth.

Here are some fotos from a different production of Dutchman

P.S. I have long thought the Dutchman at his ship wheel/helm would make a good tarot card, and wanted to do an opera tarot. Maybe I will still do it.

It is a very good illustration of the idea of not being able to get off the wheel. However the fate of the dutchman is pretty much set from before the curtain goes up -- and not really an example of the exercise of free-wheel/will...

firemaiden said:

P.S. I have long thought the Dutchman at his ship wheel/helm would make a good tarot card, and wanted to do an opera tarot. Maybe I will still do it.

It is a very good illustration of the idea of not being able to get off the wheel. However the fate of the dutchman is pretty much set from before the curtain goes up -- and not really an example of the exercise of free-wheel/will...

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True...but it works for those who believe (as I do) that at least some of our lives are directed by greater forces than our free will (we can call it Fate - or by the more prosaic names of natural phenomena or politics) - and that those forces are well represented in the Tarot by the Wheel of Fortune, and in Opera by the story of the Flying Dutchman.

Why Firemaiden! The gal in those pics--she looks JUST LIKE YOU! And they say she is "pure but slightly dippy"....coincidence? http://www.paulagoodmanwilder.com/pro/press_reviews.html

Fudugazi said:

at least some of our lives are directed by greater forces than our free will (we can call it Fate - or by the more prosaic names of natural phenomena or politics)

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Politics, and global warming, sure but nothing is pre-written, except in story-telling. (in hind sight everything is pre-written because it already happened ...in the story... and there is an author to write it. The universe has no author)

Debra said:

Why Firemaiden! The gal in those pics--she looks JUST LIKE YOU!

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Yup.