The last act is on the seashore where the ships of Daland and the Flying Dutchman ride at anchor. On Daland's gaily lighted craft all is life and animation, but from the sombre ship of the wanderer no sound issues. Unwed by the deathlike silence, a party of maidens, who have come to bid farewell to Daland's departing crew, chal lenge the unseen sailors on the other ship to dance with them upon the strand, but to no avail.
At last the rising storm begins to whistle through the rigging. Blue lights hover about the masts of the Dutch man's ship and the sailors come on board to prepare for the departure, singing drearily of the captain and the maiden he must find. The activity is but momentary, however, and as the gloom resettles upon it, Senta comes, intent on fol lowing the Dutchman. She is followed by Erick, who implores her to listen to him, and to forget the stranger in favor of whom her father has unduly influenced her. As she listens, sorry for Erick but not shaken in her resolve, the Dutchman beholds them and misinterprets the girl's dejection into regret of her promise to him. Mad with grief and disappointment, he bids her farewell and hastens to his ship. Senta pursues him, protesting her faithfulness. At first, he refuses to listen, but at last turns and announces himself as the accursed Flying Dutchman and warns her that she will do well to renounce him. Escaping from her clinging arms, he goes on board. Senta runs to a cliff and cries to him through the wind and waves that, though it be her last breath, she swears with it her unwavering faithful ness. But her voice is drowned in the tumult of the
tempest, and as the ship fades from view she casts herself into the sea. At once the distant spectral vessel sinks, the storm ceases, and in the rosy glow of the setting sun are seen the transfigured forms of Senta and the Flying Dutchman floating toward heaven in each other's arms.
The overture, supplied by Wagner many years later with a more brilliant ending and somewhat richer scoring than it originally possessed, is an established favorite in the concert-room and is one of the finest portions of the opera. The stormy introductory music is followed by a bright chorus for the sailors and the tenor solo " Mit Gewitter and Sturm " (" 'Mid the Tempest and Storm "). The Dutch man's entrance number, " Die Frist ist um " (" The Term is Past ") leads to a duet for the Dutchman and Daland.
The second act opens with the familiar " Spinning Chorus " for the women and is followed by Senta's ballad telling of the Dutchman and his fate. The orchestral music accompanying the meeting of the Dutchman and Senta and descriptive of their emotions, is the first example we have of Wagner's use of those instrumental means of dramatic and emotional expression, which, in his subsequent work, he employed so constantly and developed so elaborately. The duet for the Dutchman and Senta forms one of the most beautiful portions of the entire opera, and in the closing act the chorus for the sailors and the women and the duet between Erick and Senta are worthy of note.