1/ Today Wagner& #39;s birthday ( #btd in 1813) coincides with #WorldGothDay. Time for Der Fliegende Hollander:

In 1901, when Der Fliegende Hollander was performed for the 1st time in Bayreuth, Bram Stoker, who had made a name for himself with Dracula (in 1897) was in the audience.

2/ Bram Stoker was friends with Bayreuther house conductor Hans Richter and discussed with Richter theatrical matters such as stage lighting. As manager of the famous English actor Henry Irving, Stoker was not only a writer but also a man of the theatre.

3/ It was Irving& #39;s interpretation of Vanderdecken, a play about the Flying Dutchman, through which Bram Stoker first made acquaintance with the Holländer-myth.

4/ When Bram Stoker died in 1912, a short story was found in his legacy: Dracula& #39;s Guest. It describes the journey of Jonathan Harker, not mentioned by name, who wanders through Munich & attends on Walpurgis Night, prior to his trip to Transylvania, Wagner& #39;s Fliegende Holländer.

5/ FUN FACT: It was one Joseph Harker, a set designer from the circles of Irving, who designed the stage sets for a production of Lohengrin in 1903 for Convent Garden in London.

6/ While Dracula was written with the Dutchman in mind, Richard Wagner was aware of vampires when composing Der Fliegende Holländer. In 1833, Wagner conducted (and wrote some additional music for) a performance of Marschner& #39;s Der Vampyr in Wūrzburg.