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Organization

Singer

Baritone

Julian Hubbard

The Hunter

Ekaterina Isachenko

Dryades

Young Hee Kim

Nona Javakhidze

Soprano

Myrtò Papatanasiu

Rusalka

Tatiana Monogarova

Tenor

Pavel Černoch

Prince

Ludovit Ludha

Anda-Louise Bogza

Princess

Annalena Persson

Bass

Willard White

Vodnik

Frode Olsen

Mezzo-soprano

Renée Morloc

Jezibaba

Carole Wilson

Andre Gregoire

The Turnspit

Marc Coulon

The Gamekeeper

Conductor

Adam Fischer

Richard Lewis

Stage director

Stefan Herheim

Set designer

Heike Scheele

Costume designer

Gesine Völlm

Chorus master

Dramaturge

Wolfgang Willaschek

La Monnaie/De Munt

Others

La Monnaie Chorus

Assistant Lighting Designer

Maggiolen Uscotti

Brussels

Belgium

La Monnaie

Grande Salle

Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák, from La Monnaie/De Munt, Brussels, 2012. Directed by Willy Vanduren, conductor Stefan Herheim. Starring Myrtò Papatanasiu, Rusalka; Pavel Černoch, Prince; Annalena Persson, Foreign princess; Willard White, Vodnik; Renée Morloc, Ježibaba; Ekaterina Isachenko, YoungHee Kim, Nona Javakhidze, Wood Nymphs; Julian Hubbard, Hunter & Priest. Performed in Czech and Subtitled in Dutch and French.

Based on a fairytale by Karel Jaromír Erben reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid and Friedrich de la Motte-Fouqué’sUndine, Dvořák’s second-to-last opera Rusalka tells the story of an impossible love between the water nymph Rusalka and a young Prince.

Anyone who knows anything about classical music knows Dvořák’s legendary symphonic works (above all his New World Symphony). Less known are the Czech composer’s ten operas, with the most internationally successful among them being Rusalka. The three-act opera began life as a stand-alone libretto written by Czech author and poet Jaroslav Kvapil. When shown the libretto by the director of the Prague National Theater—an institution at that time seeking to develop Czech national identity under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian empire— Dvořák was immediately enthusiastic, and set about composing a work whose folkloric ambience and use of the Czech language have made it a Czech national treasure.

Conductor Adam Fisher and stage director Stefan Herheim’s striking and wide-acclaimed 2012 production presented this 'lyrical fairytale' at Belgium’s La Monnaie Opera House. Here the work’s fairy tale elements are transformed into a psychoanalytical study of male fantasies and female archetypes, starring Greek soprano Myrto Papatanasiu as Rusalka and Pavel Cernoch as a handsomely lyrical Prince.

Synopsis

The stubborn Rusalka asks the sorceress Ježibaba to help her win the heart of a young Prince who she has often seen bathing in her lake’s waters. The sorceress accepts, but with one condition: the nymph will lose her voice and, if rejected, she will never be able to return to her watery homeland and her love will die. At first, the Prince brings the unusual creature home with him, and prepares to marry her, but soon shows himself to be unfaithful, and their happiness and their lives unravel...

This staging of Rusalka is set in a lively city neighborhood. Rusalka, with her platinum blonde hair and silver trench coat, sings of her longing for love, in a moving performance that is entirely free of kitsch, even in the most delicate moments. The creative lighting and elaborate stage sets give rise to a fantastical world which invites you to get lost in it.

Rusalka Dvořák,A

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