Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer and Die Frist ist um : a brief study of the opera, its history and its music

Abstract

This essay is divided in two parts.Part one pinpoint the sources that led Wagner to create the opera. It begins with an outline of myths and legends that later inspired some of the most famous fictional works. Then it focuses on what inspired Wagner, from fiction to real life experiences. Next it describes the première and other important performances, concluding with an overview of the opera's most important aspects of its harmonic and symbolic language.Part two wants to focus on a detailed music analysis of the aria Die Frist ist um. The analysis highlight again the harmonic and symbolic language of Wagner's music, as well as evaluating the lyrics of his own libretto. This study is enriched by many excerpts from both the aria's piano-voice reduction and the full score, placed along music diagrams in order to facilitate the harmonic and symbolic understanding of the music.The goal of this essay is to shine a light on how this opera came into shape in Wagner's mind, the path took by the composer to create it, the fortuitous events that inspired him and the innovations within the opera's symbolic and harmonic language and poetry.