Ahoy matey! Climb aboard Lyric’s thrilling, new-to-Chicago production of Wagner’s ‘The Flying Dutchman’ This spooky, nautical classic opens the 2023/24 season and is a perfect way to kick off the Halloween season. While short by Wagner standards, this two-and-a-half-hour opera is performed without intermission, but the cinematic score and dazzling theatrics make the time sail by. This Dutchman leaves its audience spellbound all the way through the final curtain call.

Despite its fantastical elements, ‘The Flying Dutchman’ might be one of Wagner’s most straightforward and easy to follow operas. Based on a century’s old myth, ‘The Flying Dutchman’ spins a yarn about a ghost ship doomed to sail the sea for all eternity unless the supernatural captain can have the true love of a mortal maiden. When the Dutchman suddenly appears on sea captain Daland’s ship offering riches for his daughter Senta’s hand in marriage, an eeriness starts to creep into the port town where Senta awaits her father’s return. If the Dutchman can have Senta’s unwavering love, he can remain mortal and bring about his sinister plans on land.

What’s always striking about Wagner’s operas are how much they sound like today’s movie scores. Though sung in German with English subtitles to guide you, there’s something immediate about the way Wagner’s score conveys emotion. A creepy plot paired with abundant full-cast choruses all add up to an exciting and suspenseful final act.

Dialed-up vocals up under Christopher Alden’s direction really pay off. Part of what keeps people coming back to the same operas time after time are the beautiful moments of song that seem almost fleeting amidst something as sprawling as an opera. Such moments are plentiful too many to count in this production. This is especially true of Tamara Wilson as Senta. Not only can the Chicago native sing to the rafters, but she can also act. The same can be said of her co-star Tomasz Konieczny as the Dutchman.

When an opera takes place on the sea, staging is crucial. Kudos to the cast for doing this entire show on a diagonally slanted stage. Allen Moyer’s vision is more or less minimalism with touches of the old school. The ghostly wedding alone is worth spending two hours in the dark for. Each act though similarly staged provides an uneasy sense of suspense to match Wagner’s haunting music.

Some operas are just plain fun and ‘The Flying Dutchman’ much like Gounod’s ‘Faust’ is a devilishly good time. Wagner’s classic has a little bit of everything and it’s here you start to hear the beginnings of what would become musical theater as we know it today. An enormously talented cast of singers along with reliably sumptuous staging will have audiences under its spell and wondering where the evening went.

Through October 7 at Lyric Opera of Chicago. 20 N Upper Wacker. www.lyricopera.org (312) 332-2244.