Rusalka by Dvořák, No (2022/2023), Režisēja Radovan Lipus,, Diriģents Adam Sedlický, Marek Šedivý, Antonín Dvořák Theatre, Ostrava, Czech Republic

"For your love, for your beauty, for your human passion fickle, for everything that curses my fate, human soul, God have mercy on you!' Richard Samek received a narrow nomination for the 2020 Thalia Award for his role as Prince. The world-famous Czech opera is the masterpiece of the composer Antonín Dvořák, enchanting the audience since its world premiere in 1901. The composer had at his disposal Jaroslav Kvapil's excellent poetic libretto inspired by Andersen's The Little Mermaid and the ballads of Karel Jaromír Erben, the influences of symbolism and decadence of the late 19th century are also evident here. The opera tells the fairy tale story of the water fairy Rusalka, who leaves the safety of her lake home and becomes a human for the love of the Prince. Because of his momentary fascination with another woman, the emotionally unstable Prince is betrayed and rejected by the human world on her wedding day. The betrayed Rusalka cannot go back, she becomes a deadly element - a maze - and the Prince also finds death in her arms. The story is told by the composer with colorful, melodically and instrumentally rich, emotion-filled music; is a suggestive image of nature and emotions. In Dvořák's musical treatment, the end of the opera was reached, when the desperate Prince dies in the arms of Rusalka-bludika in the waves of the lake, a powerful, breathtaking catharsis - Rusalka's forgiveness of the dying Prince. The composer thus created one of the strongest,