Synopsis
Programme
WARNING SPOILER!!! - Click here for Short Synopsis (Teaser)
ACT I
A trio of wood nymphs sink and dance in the moonlight by the lake as the Water-Sprite, ruler of the underwater kingdom, looks on. The wood nymphs leave, and the Water-Sprite's daughter, Rusalka arrives. Rusalka is disconsolate because she has fallen in love with a mortal, a Prince who comes to swim in the lake. As a wave she has caressed him but he can neither see or hear her, and now she longs to leave the lake and take on mortal form so that she can experience human love. The Water-Sprite tries to dissuade his daughter against such aspirations, warning her that humans are full of sin, but realising the depth of her unhappiness reluctantly directs her to Jezibaba, the witch of the forest, who can make her wish come true. Rusalka sings to the moon of her love then goes off to visit Jezibaba.
Jezibaba warns Rusalka that the price of the transformation will be the loss of the power of speech so that she will never be able to communicate with her human lover. Moreover, if she is betrayed by him lover she will be eternally damned as an outcast. Undeterred, Rusalka accepts these conditions and Jezibaba casts her spell, giving Rusalka human form.
At dawn, the Prince approaches the lake with a party of hunters in pursuit of a white doe which has mysteriously vanished. Sensing sometheing strange, he sends the hunters away in order to be alone and Rusalka, in her beautiful human form, reveals herself to him. The Prince falls madly in love with her, embracing her and promising to make her his wife. Rusalka happily follows as he leads her away, unheeding of the laments of her father and her sister nymphs emanating from the depths of the lake.
ACT II
In the garden of the Prince's castle, the Gamekeeper and the Kitchen Boy gossip about the Prince's obsession with his mysterious, mute bride-to-be. They worry that he has been bewitched by her but conclude that he will probably soon lose interest in her as he is notoriously fickle, and hope that a visiting foreign Princess will catch his eye. The Prince enters with Rusalka but already all is not well. The Prince does not understand why Rusalka does not return his passion and is already growing weary of her deference and timidity. He scolds her for her coldness, even whilst telling her he must possess her.
The Foreign Princess appears and reproaches the Prince for ignoring his guests. The Princess is jealous of Rusalka and mocks her muteness as lack of manners. Secretly, she seethes that the Prince has chosen another over her and plans to destroy their happiness. The Prince sends Rusalka away to be dressed for the ball and as soon as she is gone begins courting the Princess, leading her back inside to begin the festivities.
Fearing she is losing her love, Rusalka runs from the castle to seek solace from her father (she can still speak to non-mortals). She tells him the Prince no longer loves her and begs his forgiveness. The Water-Sprite despairs for his daughter and instructs her that she must go and win back the love she has lost.
Rusalka returns to find the Prince expounding his love for the Princess. She rushes into his arms but he rejects her, telling her again she is too cold. The Water-Sprite appears and leads Rusalka away as the Prince throws himself at the feet of his now love. But the Princess, having gained her revenge, scornfully rejects him.
ACT III
The doomed Rusalka returns to the lake, longing for death, but knowing that the fate awaiting her is far worse. Jezibaba hears her laments and mocks her for her foolishness, but offers her once chance to save herself from the fate that awaits her. Offering her a dagger, she tells Rusalka that if she kills her betrayer with her own hand the curse will be broken. But Rusalka cannot bring herself to do this, swearing that she would rather submit to her fate. She beomes a spirit of death, doomed to a solitary existence luring humans to their deaths in the depths of the lake. Her sister nymphs reject her as her grief spoils their merriment, making her, as fortold, an outcast among both mortals and non-mortals.
The Gamekeeper and the Kitchen Boy seek out Jezibaba, hoping to get help for the Prince who has fallen ill since Rusalka's disappearance, and accusing Rusalka of betraying him. The Water-Sprite overhears and appears before them, thundering that is was Rusalka who was betrayed and denouncing humanity for it's dishonesty. The Gamekeeper and the Kitchen Boy flee in terror.
The three wood-nymphs appear, dancing and singing in the moonlight, but when the Water-Sprite tells them of Rusalka's plight they weep and run away.
The Prince then emerges from the forest, distraught and begging Rusalka for forgiveness. Her voice returned, Rusalka reproaches him and asks why he betrayed her. He begs her to kiss him, but she tells him the curse would make her kiss fatal to him. But the Prince is resolved to atone for his perfidy, and swearing his love for Rusalka asks her again to kiss him and grant him peace in oblivion. Rusalka grants him his wish and he dies in her arms, but for Rusalka it is too late, her fate is unaltered, destined forever to be a spirit of death.
Impressions/Performances
Dvorak's fairytale opera is a bitter-sweet and ultimately tragic story of love and betrayal. It has never gained the popularity to make it one of the staples of the operatic stage, like "Carmen", "La Boheme" etc., but instead hovers on the fringe of the popular operatic repertoire. On this showing by Opera North one can only seriously wonder why. The story is touchingly sentimental, Dvorak's music is hauntingly melodic, and there are many beautiful arias, especially for Rusalka. It is an opera that reaches into the soul and stirs the emotions as few others can.
This production lays particular emphasis on the darker aspects of the story, not least in the chilling starkness of the set which resembles a box shaped icy cavern within which are arranged a number of large blocks of frosted ice. Rusalka, having given up everything for the unconditional love she bears the Prince is treated with suspicion, mockery and brutality by his supporters. When they dress her for the ball it is more like an angry mob attacking her. And when she flees back to the forest it is on on crutches, with bloodstained feet and her once luxurious hair gone lank and straggly. Even there she finds no compassion as the witch gloats over her downfall. It's very powerful and poignant stuff, filled with such sharp touches. In the title role, Giselle Allen truly lives the part, throwing herself with great conviction into the role of the mermaid who longs for love. Dressed throughout all in white contrasting with her lush titian hair she looks as much as sounds the beautiful ethereal spirit dissatisfied with her bland faerie existence and longing to experience the thrill of human love. Her arias in the first act are sung tirelessly with great passion and vibrancy so that we are instantly made a part of her world and feel her pain even more sharply when love turns to heartbreak - her rendition of "The Song to the Moon" is a particular delight. Overall it is a superbly controlled and restrained performance, avoiding any hint of showboating and maintaining throughout the image of the innocent spirit who, for love, has propelled herself into a world that is ultimately beyond her comprehension and for which she pays a terrible price. It is a terrific performance which, if it doesn't exactly carry the show, certainly sets it firmly on the right path.
Richard Berkeley Steele, a handsome, heroic tenor, is equally commanding as the Prince, whose passion for Rusalka begins to sour when she is unable to reciprocate in kind. In fact it is a very strong cast all-round in which Susannah Glanville is deliciousy wicked, but regretably underused, as the spiteful Princess; Richard Angas with his dark and brooding bass is perfectly suited to the doleful Water-Sprite whose fatherly advice Rusalka so foolishly ignores; and Natash Joul, Kim-Marie Woodhouse and Alexandra Sherman caper and sing delightfully as the wood-nymphs.
Spine-chilling at times, Rusalka is a somewhat unsettling opera, mixing as it does pastoral simplicity and innocence with human guile and wickedness. The Prince vassilates from heroic lover to uncaring cad, the Princess is a study in haughty disdain and regal spite, the witch is contemptuously malevolent, and the courtiers are vicious and brutal. All of which serves to heighten the innocence and vulnerability of the main character, Rusalka.
The always impressive orchestra of Opera North, on this occasion more than fifty strong, copes with Dvorak's lush, melodic score as capably as ever so that the only real criticism that could be levelled against this production is the staging. The overall starkness of the set is clearly deliberate but, whilst effective in it's way, is just a little too bland and featureless. The result is that, whilst it focuses the attention on the characters, it takes the overall edge off the wow-factor that this production so richly deserves.
Verdict
Musically rich and boasting an incredible central performance, a hugely welcome reappearance of Dvorak's too rarely produced tragic opera.
Don Gillan - www.stagebeauty.net