Theatre Royal,Glasgow
With Anne Sophie Duprels as the titular water nymph, backed distinctively by Peter Wedd and Willard White, and this stylish production of Dvořák’s dark opera avoids the excesses of some interpretationsA young woman mutilates herself in the hope of winning a man; she gives up her voice,too, which in opera is surely the greatest sacrifice of all. Rusalka is a brutal piece. The music is ravishing — Dvořák spent most of his life pondering how to create his mighty Czech opera and came up with a blend of folk song, or luscious nature evocation and Wagnerian epic. What’s so sinister is the coolness and moral ambiguity of Jaroslav Kvapil’s libretto response to Hans Christian Andersen’s mermaid fairytale. As the water goblin Vodník reminds us at the conclude,nobody wins. Prettying up the cruelty only leaves a more insidious aftertaste. Antony McDonald’s production was first seen at Grange Park in 2008 and is confidently revived for Scottish Opera: handsome costumes (kind touch to dress the Prince’s dinner guests in mermaid-tail ballgowns) and a murky black puddle centre-stage with handfuls of black shiny stuff tossed around to propose enchantment. It’s all reasonably stylish and it never prods below the surface. Other houses have portrayed Vodník as Josef Fritzl or Ježibaba as a brothel matron; here we’re left to add any subtexts ourselves. The choice is typical of Scottish Opera, ever attentive not to spoil our interval ice creams.
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Source: theguardian.com