Conducted by B. WALTON O'DONNELL
CUTHBERT SMITH (Baritone)
A DUTCH sailor-captain swears he will sail
A round the Cape, in the teeth of gales, even though he should sail till Doomsday. The Devil takes him at his word, and he is condemned to sail until'(iii Wagner's version) he finds a woman willing to share his unending travels. After many years, he finds such a self-sacrificing woman, but wishing, in his love for her, to save her from a doom such as his, he leaves her. She," however, throws herself into the water to join him ; the spell is broken by her renunciation, and in death they find rest together.
The Overture is practically an epitome of the Opera. A dominating motive is that of the Curse, heard in a strenuous call against a quivering, stormy background. There is a contrasting, prayer-like tune, and also a gay sailor-song. These are all repeated with increasing force towards the end.
IN ]880 Tchaikovsky paid a visit to Italy, and was pleased with the popular tunes he heard people singing there. Some of them he worked up into this ' Fantasia ' (as he called it).
The opening military ''call' is a reminiscence of the music the Composer heard when he stayed near a barracks in Rome. Then various folk-songs are brought in. The last section of this work is in the style of the lively Tarantella dance.