Rusalka in HD

Conductor:  Mark Elder
Production:  Mary Zimmerman

Rusalka:  Kristine Opolais
Prince:  Brandon Jovanovich
Princess:  Katarina Dalayman
Jezibaba:  Jamie Barton
Gnome:  Eric Owens

Dvorák's Rusalka was live from the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday. Many of the people around me had never seen this opera.  This is my fourth time with all the previous times starring Renée Fleming. 

I was completely won over by the water nymphs at the beginning.  First they danced and then suddenly as if by magic they sang.

In case you thought after her appearance in Nabucco that Jamie Barton was boring, her Jezibaba was evil and fun and completely upstaged everyone else.  Except maybe the water nymphs.

Eric Owens owns the Gnome. He pointed out in his interview that this was his actual Fach while L'Amour is more a baritone role.

This is an excellent role for Kristine.  Someone has to step into Fleming's repertoire.  Her acting is far more intense than Fleming which changes the dramatic intensity of the opera.  Her voice is not really heavy enough for most of the roles she sings, but if she keeps this under control, it should be good for her.

I thought the castle sequence in Act II worked better here than other productions I have seen.  Brandon was the picture of prince charming.  I liked it but don't want to go on and on about it.  The Wagner loving conductor thinks it's one of the great post Wagnerian operas, but for me it's just ok. I tend to think of Dvorák as post Brahms rather than post Wagner.  Wagnerians ignore Brahms.

Matthew Polenzani was an excellent host.

Rusalka

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Production:  Otto Schenk
Set Designer:   Günther Schneider-Siemssen

Cast

Rusalka:  Renée Fleming
Prince:   Piotr Beczala
Princess:  Emily Magee
Jezibaba:  Dolora Zajick
Gnome:  John Relyea
Kitchen Boy:  Julie Boulianne
Gamekeeper:  Vladimir Chmelo
First Sprite:  Jihee Kim
Second Sprite:  Renée Tatum
Third Sprite:  Maya Lahyani
Hunter:  Alexey Lavrov

Yes.  I looked it up and the only live performance of Dvorák's Rusalka I've ever seen, San Francisco Opera 1995, was also in a set designed by Günther Schneider-Siemssen.  It also starred Renée Fleming, she also sang the aria from the top of a tree, and she walked on water in the last act.  I see in the archives that this opera had its first Metropolitan Opera performance in 1993 and was revived with Renée Fleming in 1997.  The Met revived it in 2004, but it hasn't been revived in San Francisco.  So I shouldn't have been surprised when everyone around me said they hadn't seen it.

This cast was incredible, and the traditional production gave a vivid idea of what the opera was about.  This is probably the best you are going to get from Rusalka.

The role of Rusalka fits Renée Fleming's voice like a glove, and Piotr Beczala is the perfect Prince Usually Charming.  As the foreign princess, Emily Magee stole all the scenes she was in.  Dolora Zajick is just the sort of wacko witch you might just believe in.  Perhaps she could turn you into a human being.

But then why would you want to?  The music, guided by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, is gorgeously romantic.  It's not hard to understand why Renée Fleming loves this opera.  The only weakness lies in the plot.  What makes a human in the witch's description is that they can die and have a soul that lives on after them.  Rusalka doesn't care--she just wants to experience love.  We will assign the resulting foolishness to youth, perhaps.  It's a Czech fairy tale, and fairy tales frequently come out badly.

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Rusalka

This should come as no surprise, but productions from Paris seem to focus on sex. That's fine for Alcina with Renée Fleming, Susan Graham and Natalie Dessay, since that's what Alcina is about--sex, not love. Men enchanted in various stages of undress seems quite sensible as well as entertaining. Incidentally, the cast of the House of Opera nude man Alcina is the same as the CD recommended in the New York Times Essential Library--Opera book. The singing on the video is excellent.

This DVD of Dvorak's Rusalka is also from Paris, and recasts the fairy tale into sexual terms. Instead of nude men, we have beds in every scene. As a water sprite Rusalka, it seems, doesn't long for the Prince so much as his bedroom, seen perched at the top of the set.

When the rival appears, the Prince alternates between two identical bedrooms. The story isn't very attractive when told this way. It effectively showcases Renée Fleming in her favorite role.
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