Rusalka - Antonín Dvořák

The National Theatre

Premiere: May 10, 2009

Musical preparation: Jakub Hrůša
Conductor: Jakub Hrůša / Zbyněk Müller
Director: Jiří Heřman
Stage design: Jaroslav Bönisch
Costumes: Alexandra Grusková
Lights: Daniel Tesař
Chorus master: Pavel Vaněk
Choreography: Jan Kodet
Dramaturgy: Beno Blachut

Rusalka: Dana Burešová / Maria Kobielska
Prince: Valentin Prolat / Aleš Briscein / Peter Berger
Water Goblin: Martin Gurbal' / Štefan Kocán / Miloslav Podskalský
Witch, Foreign Princess: Dagmar Pecková / Jolana Fogašová / Denisa Hamarová
First Wood Sprite: Yukiko Šrejmová Kinjo / Kateřina Kněžíková
Second Wood Sprite: Lucie Hájková / Alžběta Poláčková
Third Wood Sprite: Michaela Kapustová / Stanislava Jirků
Turnspit: Lívia Obručník Vénosová / Kateřina Jalovcová
Gamekeeper: Ivan Kusnjer / Adam Plachetka / František Zahradníček
Hunter: Ivan Kusnjer / Adam Plachetka / František Zahradníček
Orchestra, Choir and Ballet of the National Theatre Opera.

Dvořák’s ardent melodiousness, both tender and dramatically extreme, his masterly deployment of musical motifs and full-blooded orchestral instrumentation, together with Jaroslav Kvapil’s libretto, reminiscent of Erben’s simple and at the same time extremely cogent ballads, make Rusalka a work of sheer rapturous beauty, touching a chord with audiences irrespective of age. It is customary to consider Rusalka a fairy-tale. The fantasticality of its action and the characters – dryads, the Water Goblin, fairies, the Witch – are indisputably fairy-tale-like. However, despite its “fairy-tale nature” this paramount Dvořák work bears in itself a profound message encrypted in the fairy-tale scenes, a message about the basic arrangement of powers, elements, energies and passions in the natural, i.e. also human, world. The story of Rusalka is built upon a number of pagan mythological symbols, which we – it would seem – understand because they speak to our unconscious and to our hearts. The new Rusalka staging will be crafted by the Artistic Director of the National Theatre Opera, Jiří Heřman. The double-role of the Witch and the Foreign Princess will be performed by the famous Czech mezzo-soprano Dagmar Pecková.

The opera is staged in Czech original version and English subtitles are used in the performance

Running time: 3 hours