Rusalka

ABOUT PERFORMANCE

“For your love, for that beauty of yours,

for your inconstant human passion,

for everything by which my fate is cursed,

human soul, God have mercy on you!“

The world's most famous Czech opera, the masterpiece of Antonin Dvorak, has been enchanting audiences since its world premiere in 1901. The composer had a brilliant poetic libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil, inspired by Andersen's Little Mermaid, and Ballads by Karel Jaromir Erben with clear elements of symbolism and decadence in the late 19th century. The opera tells the fairy tale story of the water nymph Rusalka, who leaves the safety of her lake home and becomes a human for the love of the Prince. The emotionally unstable Prince betrays her for his momentary enchantment by another woman and she is then rejected by the human world. Betrayed Rusalka becomes a deadly element – a firefly – and among others even the Prince dies in her arms. The composer tells the story in a colourful and melodic way, the music is filled with passion; it is a expressive image of nature and emotions. Dvorak’s opera ends in a breath-taking catharsis – Rusalka forgives the Prince who is dying in her arms. The composer thus created one of the strongest and incomprehensibly purifying, elusive and beautiful musical endings in both Czech and international opera.

Performed in the Czech original with Czech and English subtitles.

CAST AND CREATIVE

Rusalka: Veronika Rovná Holbová, Kateřina Kněžíková, Laura Teivāne, Pavla Vykopalová, Barbora Řeřichová
Water goblin: Martin Gurbaľ, František Zahradníček, Jan Šťáva
Prince: Luciano Mastro, Richard Samek, Martin Šrejma
Witch: Jana Sýkorová, Anna Thun
Foreign princess: Anna Nitrová, Lucie Silkenová, Zuzana Šveda
First wood sprite: Markéta Böhmová, Tereza Štěpánková
Second wood sprite: Michaela Kubištelová, Ivana Pavlů
Third wood sprite: Stanislava Jirků, Anna Nitrová
Gamekeeper: Jakub Kettner, David Nykl
Cook: Ivana Ambrúsová, Denisa Bílá
Hounter: Jakub Kettner, Petr Urbánek
Little Rusalka: Karolína Beňová, Tara Křemenová, Rebeka Melicharová, Kateřina Ryšková
Wood sprites: Lucie Hubená, Eva Marie Kořená, Nikola Novotná, Bohdana Šindlerová

Musical preparation - Jakub Klecker
Conductor - Jakub Klecker, Adam Sedlický
Stage director - Radovan Lipus
Set designer - David Bazika
Videoprojection - Otakar Mlčoch
Costume designer - Ha Thanh Špetlíková
Choreography - Jana Hanušová
Chorus master - Jurij Galatenko
Dramaturg - Eva Mikulášková

Photo by: Martin Popelář