Rusalka

Part of your world ...  

Once upon a time there was a nymph called Rusalka. In the depths of the ocean, she dreamed of a life above water. She longed to become human and conquer the prince’s heart. In the well-known aria ‘Song to the Moon’, she sings out her longing.  

With the help of the sea witch Ježibaba, Rusalka gives up everything to win the prince over. But the human world turns out to be a nightmare, one of rigid conventions, power games and double standards.  

Fairytale-like harmonies  

We’re all familiar with the fairytale that inspired Antonín Dvořák’s opera by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, which became broadly known and popular thanks in part to the Disney version from the 1990s.   

The Czech composer was famous for his beautiful harmonies and the opera is rife with long melodies and blue notes. Rusalka is reminiscent of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde in its musical depiction of longing and the impossibility of love, through sighing semitones and lush orchestration. Yet Dvořák’s tonality includes distinctive Slavic melodies and folk elements. 

Acclaimed director returns  

Director Tatjana Gürbaca and set designer Klaus Grünberg together create a fairytale-like and otherworldly universe on the Main Stage. The fairy tale is like a mirror reflecting our own world: a rapidly changing modern reality with no place for a woman like Rusalka.