Time is often the unspoken main character in opera. The drama of “Don Giovanni” stems from the plot unfolding in just one day. Orpheus’s tragic downfall is being unable to avoid gazing at Eurydice until they’ve left the underworld. And the plot of “Der fliegende Holländer” is cut short if Daland doesn’t seek shelter from a storm on the same day that the Dutchman’s ghost ship is granted its once-every-seven-years shore leave.
My Father, The Flying Dutchman
On finding solace in operatic suicide
