The Paris Opera has been the primary opera and ballet company of France for decades. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV in the capital of France. Today, the Opéra National de Paris, as it is called now, is still the biggest opera theater in France. The German composer Richard Wagner was very interested in composing a French opera for this institution. He came up with the scenario of ‘The Phantom Ship’ and submitted it to Léon Pillet, director of the Paris opera at that time. Pillet was very interested in the story, but he determined to contact librettist Paul Foucher and Pierre-Louis Dietsch for the libretto. Together they created ‘Le vaisseau fantôme’ (The Phantom Ship), which story later became very famous as ‘The Flying Dutchman’, an opera by Richard Wagner in German. This version of The Phantom Ship is based on the premiere that took place in 1842 by the Paris Opera. The 2015 version is staged by Alexander Schulin and performed by Les Siècles under the baton of François-Xavier Roth. Soloists are Alfred Walker, Ingela Brimberg, Marcel Reijans, Maximilian Schmitt, Liang Li and Kismara Pessati.
