Overture (Der fliegende Holländer)

Wagner drafted Der fliegende Holländer in 1841 during a poor stretch in Paris, using a legend he had read in Heine and the memory of a stormy crossing from Riga two years earlier that had driven his ship into a Norwegian fjord. He sold the prose scenario to the Paris Opéra for 500 francs, which financed the composition of his own setting. The premiere was given at the Dresden court theatre on 2 January 1843. He later wanted the work played without breaks; the overture already holds the whole opera — the Dutchman's call, Senta's phrase and the sailors' music.