raping nature
by Douglas Messerli
Antonín Dvořák (composer), Jaroslav
Kvapil (libretto) Rusalka / Howard
and I saw the HD Live broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera Company production on
Saturday, February 25, 2017
But act two makes it clear, despite the
fact that Rusalka hardly gets a chance to sing, that the heart of this opera is
a bit closer to Wagner’s Tristan and
Isolde and even, in parts, has more elements of the great Ring than of Hansel and Gretel.
Most of act Two is played out in the
form of an elaborate and erotically-charged Baroque-like series of dances
(marvelously choreographed by Austin McCormick) which not only appall poor
Rusalka but represent the antithesis of her spiritual existence. Indeed, during
the first intermissions, singer Opolais described that performing Rusalka was a
presentation of a soul rather than of a heart. In their elaborately brocaded
costumes these dancers are almost entirely about frivolous flirtation and
meaningless passion.
Worried for his daughter, the Water
Gnome appears at the party to reassure her and argue for the necessity of
winning over the Prince; yet his daughter can only see how things are. As
director Mary Zimmerman suggested, no love can be consummated when one of the
lovers is hiding her true identity, and is not allowed to express the truth.
Act Three is simply—or maybe not so simply—a fulfilling of Ježibaba’s warnings. Poor Rusalka, wandering what is now
a fallen world, is indeed frozen out of the world’s one-time beauty, yet
refuses to possibly save herself by personally killing her former lover.
Unfortunately, in this last act the composer felt the need to wrap up
everything by reintroducing nearly all of the opera’s characters, including the
minor servants of Act Two, the dancing water sprites, Ježibaba and her
consorts, and the Water Gnome before returning the bereaved and sorrowful
Prince, who, even when he is told that kissing his former lover will mean his
death, would prefer living with her in eternity than losing forever her
embrace.
Yet even their Tristan and Isolde moment does not release them, as her
father explains; in his world there is no such thing as human sacrifice, only
death. And, at opera’s end Rusalka, as promised, is now an eternal wanderer who
cannot share in the spiritual nor the world of human passion.
Despite conductor Sir Mark Elder’s long devotion to what he describes as a major opera, however, the very subject matter of Ruslka, particularly given its clotted last act, and its rough-hewn roots in folklore, make for a less profound experience than many greater operas. Having said that, this work, and particularly the new MET production, with its numerous beautifully musical and dance moments, lovely sets, and costumes as well, helped to reveal the operas many charms.
Los Angeles, February 26, 2017
Reprinted from USTheater, Opera, and Performance (February 2017).