 The Times had reported the year before that "the music for [the] part [was] being specially composed for [Oudin]".Richard D'Oyly Carte intended to follow "Ivanhoe" with a production of Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman", with Oudin in the title role.Sir Henry Wood, then répétiteur at the Royal English Opera House, later recalled in his memoirs, "I was already preparing "The Flying Dutchman" with Eugène Oudin in the name part.