Rusalka

Duration : 3h35 with 2 intervals

Language : Czech

Surtitle : French / English

Opening:

First part 60 minutes

Intermission 35 min

Second part 45 minutes

Intermission 20 min

Third part 55 minutes

End

Born from the cold waters of a lake, the water sprite Rusalka aspires to become a woman out of love for the prince with whom she is smitten. The witch who agrees to help her warns that her transformation will come at a high price: not only will she have to sacrifice her voice, but failure will mean eternal damnation.

A lyric tale inspired in part by Andersen's The Little Mermaid, Antonín Dvořák's penultimate opera, first performed in Prague in 1901, boasts spellbinding music, with orchestration as sparkling as the silver moon shimmering in the waters.

Seamlessly slipping into this organic, poetic universe, Robert Carsen devises a staging of great visual inventiveness: using an interplay of symmetries and duplications, he evokes reflections in the water as much as the mirror of dreams, revealing the impasse of an unnatural transgression.  

CHARACTERS

Rusalka: A supernatural aquatic creature
The Water Goblin: Rusalka’s father
The Prince: A human loved by Rusalka
The Foreign Princess: Rusalka’s human rival
Ježibaba: A witch
Three nymphs: Rusalka’s sisters
The Forester, The Kitchen Boy: Servants at the royal castle

Synopsis

First part

Act 1
In a moonlit lake, the three sisters of Rusalka the water nymph make merry. Their father, the Water Goblin, arrives and starts to play with his daughters. Rusalka shares her distress with her father: she confides that she has fallen in love with a Prince who occasionally comes to bathe in the waters of the lake. Her passion is such that she yearns to leave the depths of the lake and take on human form so that she may live with him. Concerned for her happiness and conscious of the danger that such a love represents for his daughter, the Water Goblin tries to dissuade her. When she persists, he tells her that there is but one person who can help her: Ježibaba the witch.

The latter appears, agrees to help the young girl by transforming her, but warns her that her love will be difficult since, in order to enter the human world, Rusalka will have to give up the power of speech. Furthermore, if ever she is rejected by the one she loves, she will be cursed forever. Rusalka is convinced that the strength of her feelings will enable her to overcome such odds: she drinks the potion and is transformed. The Prince arrives. Charmed by her beauty, he asks Rusalka if she is a nymph or a real woman. Rusalka can do no more than stretch her arms towards him. The Prince leads her away…  

Second part

Act 2
At the Prince’s castle, preparations for the Prince’s marriage to Rusalka are underway. Two servants, the Forester and the Kitchen Boy, discuss the impending wedding. Both are frightened of the strange and mute woman, and they worry for the happiness of their master. The Prince, meanwhile, is still smitten with Rusalka but he is confused by her silent aloofness. When he exhorts her to love him with more passion, the Foreign Princess appears.

Easily able to charm the young Prince, she belittles Rusalka who is unable to defend herself. The Prince promptly falls in love with this Princess who speaks and acts like a normal human. As Rusalka realises that the Prince is forsaking her for the Foreign Princess, the Water Goblin enters the castle in search of his daughter…  

Third part

Act 3
Back at the bottom of the lake, Rusalka despairs at her situation: neither woman nor nymph, her sole mission now is to lead men to their deaths. Once again, she implores Ježibaba to help her. The latter suggests that she takes her revenge by killing the man who abandoned her. Horrified, Rusalka rejects her suggestion. The Forester and the Kitchen Boy come to ask Ježibaba to assist them: since Rusalka left, their master has fallen ill and is languishing. The Water Goblin suddenly appears and accuses the Prince of having betrayed Rusalka. Terrified, the two servants flee.

Still obsessed by Rusalka, the desperate Prince starts to search for her. Suddenly, she appears before him. Now able to speak, she tenderly reproaches him for having abandoned her. When the Prince asks her to kiss him, Rusalka warns him that to do so will cost him his life. She kisses him passionately. Clasped in Rusalka’s arms, the Prince dies in contented bliss…

Program and cast

Opera in three acts (1901)

Creative team

Antonín Dvořák: Music(1841‑1904)

Jaroslav Kvapil: Libretto

Kazushi Ōno: Conductor

Robert Carsen: Staging and lighting

Michael Levine: Set design and Costume design

Peter van Praet: Lighting design

Philippe Giraudeau: Choreography

Alessandro Di Stefano: Chorus master

Cast

Nicole Car: Rusalka

Sergei Skorokhodov: The Prince

Ekaterina Gubanova: The Foreign Princess

Alisa Kolosova: The Foreign Princess(11, 20 May)

Dimitry Ivashchenko: The Spirit of the Lake

Jamie Barton: Ježibaba

Florent Mbia: The Gamekeeper, the Hunter

Seray Pinar: Le Garçon de cuisine

Margarita Polonskaya: First wood nymph

Maria Warenberg: Second wood nymph

Noa Beinart: Third wood nymph

Orchestre et Chœurs de l’Opéra national de Paris
Coproduction Wiener Staatsoper, Vienne