Didn't get Flying Dutchman tickets.

Hi just to mention that once again my partner and I didn't get our request for The Flying Ductchman for spring. Even though we are friends of Covent Garden we didn't receive our tickets due to oversubscription. I would be interested to know if other fellow friends have also suffered the same fate, it happened with Don Carlos and we had to book on the opening of public booking.

Interested to hear similar views

Interestingly, when questioned at the press launch of the 2008-9 season, the representatives of the Royal Opera repeatedly insisted that this new production of the Flying Dutchman wasn't being built around its star, a Mr. B. Terfel of Wales. It's no disrespect to the rest of the cast but it can only be Terfel who's generated this kind of interest. Let's really hope that the ROH's confidence in his reliability is not misplaced, especially after last year's Ring...

Are there still people out there who still believe Terfel can sing Wagner and don't know they are roles too far for him Surely after his repeated failures with and then the abject withdrawal from Wotan the ROH were mad to give him another chance. Obviously those who bought tickets for Dutchman are blind to the truth.

I have to disagree with you about Bryn's ability to sing Wagner. His Wotan was astounding, I certainly didn't see it as a falilure - and I really don't like Wagner in general. Bryn as Wotan gave you the impression that he was born to sing that role. He was Wotan.

I think you are being a bit harsh on him. No, Bryn shouldn't have pulled out of the Ring Cycle in quite the way he did, but he has continually stated that his reasons were to do with his family - and he repeated that in the last but one edition of BBC Music magazine. He didn't think carefully enough about how that decision would seem to other people - but that's different to not being able to sing the role.

I'm going to Dutchman. No, I don't know if I will enjoy it - but the prospect of seeing Bryn in the part is exciting. I will judge his performance after I've seen it, but based on previous experiences of watching him live I'm likely to think it was amazing!

serxes wrote:Hi just to mention that once again my partner and I didn't get our request for The Flying Ductchman for spring. Even though we are friends of Covent Garden we didn't receive our tickets due to oversubscription. I would be interested to know if other fellow friends have also suffered the same fate, it happened with Don Carlos and we had to book on the opening of public booking.

My wife and I failed to get tickets for Tosca a couple of years back - the one with Bryn - who seems to pull in the crowds alright! We've now started using the ROH's excellent internet purchase facility which, although it opens to Friends days after the more exalted tiers of "super-friends" seems to me a much better way of increasing your chances of tickets. That's how we bought ours for next year's Dutchman.

hagen1947 wrote:Are there still people out there who still believe Terfel can sing Wagner and don't know they are roles too far for him Surely after his repeated failures with and then the abject withdrawal from Wotan the ROH were mad to give him another chance. Obviously those who bought tickets for Dutchman are blind to the truth.

Did you actually see him as Wotan? My wife and I saw the Das Rheingold where he had lost his voice and mimed, which was clearly a big disappointement, but we also saw him on fine form in Die Walkure - he was brilliant and worth the entrance money alone. He definately was Wotan!

Also, we saw his towering performance as the Dutchman in WNO's recent production at the Wales Millennium Centre- again brilliant! He is an extremely talented performer of Wagner. He chooses to live a perhaps unconventional lifestyle when compared with some other opera greats but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I used to be a member of the ROH and it doesn't surprise me that this opera was over subscribed, sometimes all that money isn't worth it!

I hope you eventually manage to get tickets serxes.

I saw Bryn do his famous Falstaff earlier this year for the WNO, he has such stage presence and great acting ability. Unfortunatly i won't get the chance to see him in the flying dutchman though.


musiclover do you know Bryn is returning to play Scarpia at the end of the ROH's current season opposite Deborah Voigt?

I have to say that I am a 'Friend' of the Opera House and got good tickets in the Amphitheatre on the day they came out online for 1 March performance. I have to say though when Terfel pulled out of the Ring last year, the amount of tickets you could get on Ebay for it increased tenfold.

I can't speak for the Friends booking arrangement, but I do prefer the new(ish) way of booking tickets on the ROH website. I remember the old days when you couldn't choose the exact seats you wanted - I think it's much better now.

Yeah...i find the new ROH booking system excellent. Its in the same format as the NT booking. I especially like how you can view the information about each seat and get a good understanding about where it is in the auditorium.

re,roh der fliegende hollande,as usual with any performance of wagner,it was over rated,over blown and not up to my standards of how wagner's works should be performed,as composer intended.