In order to escape her narrow and restrictive life, Senta, the daughter of a rich ship owner, seeks refuge in her fantasies and dreams. In this realm of imagination, a bold and restless sea captain appears to her, the Flying Dutchman, who is cursed to wander the seas forever. In her obsessive dreams, Senta frees this man through her love for him. Herz's successful staging of The Flying Dutchman at the Berlin Komische Oper in 1962 at the invitation of Walter Felsenstein, and subsequent productions at the Opernhaus Leipzig and Moscow's Bolshoi Theater, prompted an invitation to make a cinematic adaptation. The only East German film to include elements of horror and vampire genres, The Flying Dutchman was the first complete Wagner opera ever made on film. The script clearly separated the real from the imaginary; in the original 35mm format, this was reflected visually by changing the image size, from Academy ratio for reality, to wide-screen for fantasy. The film was produced with a groundbreaking 4-channel magnetic soundtrack.