firemaiden said:
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.
That was another thing that bugged me, but that the general audience wouldn't have noticed. Although they were singing about spinning, the actions that the chorus of sisters were performing was clearly weaving. I only know this because my sister weaves. She has a loom in her dinning room.
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.
It could have been her father's house, but then it would have been a very big family, or a very big house.
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 hallucinations can appear.
I could agree with that. Many repetitive crafts can be almost hypnotic or meditative. Your hands know what to do, so you mind is able to wander.
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
I really wish I could find some photos of the tilted stage, or the wheel itself.
