I’m going to visit a friend in Rome during half-term and she has managed to get tickets to see Rusalka at the Teatro dell’Opera (front row of the balcony). I see that it’s conducted by Günter Neuhold (he of the 'Ring for a fiver' many posters seem to have picked up) and has Angeles Blancas Gulin in the cast as Rusalka:
http://www.operaroma.it/stagione/cartellone_2008/rusalka. It's being sung in Czech with Italian surtitles.

I’ve never seen Rusalka before. What should I expect? Anyone here seen a production? (Or directed one, Reiner?!) Apart from the Verona Arena, I’ve not been to opera in Italy either. It’s an experience I’m looking forward to. Any thoughts/ recommendations on Italian opera houses and/ or Rome most welcome!

Thanks, Don B,

I've got the Fleming recording and have been giving it another spin this weekend. The opening trio of wood nymphs reminds me of some of Dvořák's symphonic poems, most notably The Water Goblin. I recall reading about a Robert Carsen production in Paris, but don't know about ENO - Ruth or Reiner may well have seen it.

I'd very much like to go to La Fenice some day.

Rusalka contains some of Dvorak's most gorgeous music. And when intelligently produced it's a marvellous opera too! The "notorious" ENO production (by David Pountney) was actually excellent, one of the classics from the "Powerhouse" years at the Coli, delving beneath the fairy-tale surface to more psychological depths than are usually evident in more conservative productions. I've seen it in Brno too, and the production was pretty dull, but the music's so marvellous that it was still worth it -- especially with tickets being embarrassingly cheap!

I think we've discussed recordings elsewhere on these boards: on Supraphon, Krombholc (in 1950s mono) and Chalabala (my favourite, in 1960s stereo) are both preferable to the later Neumann set. And the Mackerras set on Decca (with Fleming and Heppner) is wonderful too.

If the production is good, IGI, you're in for a real treat. In any case, you can still enjoy Dvorak's music and (hopefully) the singing.  Still, if you only see one Dvorak opera, this has to be the one. Think The Watergoblin meets Wagner!

And do let us know what it's like!

Thanks, George!  She's welcome to paddle in my pool anytime, if I had one of course! (Nice of the Milk Tray Man to put in an appearance in the final frames.)

Thanks to opi and HtoHe for their comments on the opera. It looks as if the production is from the Dvorak Theatre in Ostrava rather than an original Italian one.

Just to add to the general chorus of praise for Rusalka - the music is glorious, and IMHO Rusalka's aria in the third act is even better than the much better known invocation to the moon in Act 1; and the duet at the end of the opera is utterly overpowering. The opera can sound Wagnerian (or at least it did when Mark Elder conducted it at the ENO) but the Czech recordings (including Mackerras, with a Czech orchestra) bring out a wonderfully sylvan side to the music.

The Pountney production used to be available commercially on video - it's worth tracking down, because it was a breathtaking piece of theatre. 

Yes, that's the one.  I think I may even have been at the performance that was filmed 

Interesting trailer, Reiner! Thanks for posting that.

On the Rome Opera's website, only three names are listed: Angeles Blancas Gulin, who sang the role of Rusalka in Turin last year from what I discovered;  Kostyantyn Andreyev presumably as the Prince; and Francesca Franci who I assume is singing the Foreign Princess. I wonder if you've come across Andreyev at all? Apparently, he's in a recent Naxos issue of Foerster's opera, Eva.

I see where you're going with that, PW, but I was after something different from the opera...  a paean of the pastoral, and rejection of all of the "conventions" of modern urban society.  It was certainly a bold idea of Pountney's to discard the watery setting entirely, and put Rusalka in a nursery..  a conscious decision to develop his "loss of virginity" allegory by - ahem - removing all of the original story which might distract from the particular line he planned taking.  It revealed a lot, but it also lost a lot in the telling.  RUSALKA is "CINDERELLA-GONE-WRONG"..  the Handsome Prince runs off to live happily-ever-after with the Ugly Sister, and Rusalka can't retro-fit her tail to go back to the water.   Although one can see this "can't-ever-go-back" thing as being "merely" the loss of virginity (as Pountney did),  I think Dvorak's done a disservice in such a one-dimensional telling of the tale.  It's not merely been an unfortunate one-night-stand for one girl...  you could almost make a case for saying it's an allegory of racism?  She's "good-enough-for-an-easy-lay", and the "thrill of the exotic", but after that the Prince wants to settle down with.. a Princess, of course, like any Prince would.  (NB on that topic, a much more dangerous book emerges from Czech culture... "War With The Newts", by the Brothers Capek).  Rusalka isn't just rejected by the Prince (despite his "remorse" later), but by the whole of the society which surrounds him too.

There's an odd parallel with the only other "cross-species love-story" I can think of in the C19th romantic vein - Swan Lake. There's another Prince, but this time he chucks-over the charming fiancee his mother's lined up (I always feel a bit sorry for her, she gets a bum rap in the plot and we never find out what happens to her?) and bets the ranch on a relationship with a Swan. This, too, ends tragically, but for reasons beyond his reasonable control.   But in Rusalka, its not the evil force of Rotbarth... it's just callous indifference that does for poor Rusalka.

I see the potential to stage RUSALKA as an indictment of pollution of the environment... she can't go back to her original waters, because they've been so badly polluted by that race of tail-less beings...   Thankfully the chances I would ever be offered a chance to stage the piece are around nil, so you can all relax