In his first production as Zurich Intendant, Andreas Homoki has gone all out to concentrate on the psychological and socio-political aspects of Wagner’s retelling of Heine’s story. Nautical imagery is thrown overboard and the story centred on Daland’s household, the centre of his trade empire with Africa. The male chorus are clerks and financiers, the women secretaries; a telephone links them to imaginary ships in the outer scenes (the blunt pre-redemption ending version of the score is used, although in one act and with some later modifications). Bryn Terfel’s Holländer has the magic magnetic power of disappearing at will. Face paint and tattoos hint that his character may have ‘gone native’ through his journeys to the Cape. A revolt of his unseen crew when taunted by the Norwegians – a coup de théâtre with a projected burning map – is initiated by Daland’s African servant. It suggests the colonies rebelling against commercial exploitation and the Holländer’s sympathy with them and antipathy to Daland’s capitalist world, perhaps an additional reason for his final rejection of Senta.

For the first two acts Homoki’s dramaturgy mines an interesting and novel slant on the piece. Sensing the need for a change of gear in Act 3, he goes a little crazy – but it’s never boring. Like Wieland Wagner’s 1959 Bayreuth production, his rationale and stage geography naturally forbid a Romantic ending transfiguration over the cliffs and away by sea. But Anja Kampe has been such an energetic life force as Senta that her suicide by Erik’s gun is unconvincingly over-convenient.

Musically there’s much to shout about. The orchestra acquit themselves well in their two-hour-plus marathon for Altinoglu, who maintains a good pace and uncovers much detail sometimes lost in bigger theatres. Terfel delivers the role with massive conviction and constant cherishing of the vital words in a phrase. Kampe, as hinted above, is a very wholesome and untiring Senta, in no way a mystical neurotic. Salminen is a wise old bear of a Daland who enjoys his text more the older he gets. Jentzsch’s Erik was rather pushed at the top of his two arias at the performance(s) recorded. The chorus are busy, active and committed to the task of frequently singing about what isn’t there. Good sound and filming and, despite the disappointing ending, I would rate this almost alongside the famous Kupfer Bayreuth production for small-screen Dutchmen.