Gergiev is an experienced Wagnerian, one who favors firm, stately tempi and uses them to explore the composer’s thematic layering and musical textures.

Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Holländer” is a ghost story, but the new production that opened on Monday at the Metropolitan Opera is deadly, and not in a good way.

If the production had some interesting ideas, however unevenly executed, so, too, did the conducting of Valery Gergiev.

The Met orchestra and chorus sounded splendid under Valery Gergiev’s baton. Rather uncharacteristically, he was reluctant to have his players dig in on Monday; more roughness would have underscored

Valery Gergiev has done good work in Wagner, but here his conducting sounds slow and lifeless; the tension and drama are constantly becalmed.