The flirting Dutchman: Wagner Italian at the Komische Oper Berlin

We’ve always suspected it, but with the premiere on Sunday in the Komische Oper it will become a surprising certainty: the Dutchman is a notorious liar. It does not come from the lowlands on the North Sea at all, but has its home beyond the Alps. In any case, Günter Papendell, as the title hero, sounds like he grew up in the country where opera was born. How he lets the tones blossom, how he spans the melody arcs, how he flirts vocally, that’s pure bel canto. The fact that the young Richard Wagner was one of Rossini’s admirers when he began his fourth opera in 1841 can be heard in Günter Papendell’s voice.