Program

Antonín Dvořák, Rusalka, Op. 114, B. 203

Overture

I: "Hou, hou, hou"

I. "I pekne vitam"

I: "Hastrmánku, taticku!"

I: "Sem často přichází"

I: "Mĕsičku na nebi hlubokém" (Song to the Moon)

I: "Ta voda studi, studi!"

I: "Staletá moudrost tvá všechno"

I: "Tvoje moudrost vsechno tusi"

I: "Čury mury fuk"

I: "Jel mlady lovec, jel a jel"

I. "Ustante v lovu, na hrad vrafte se"

I. "Sestry, jedna scházi z nás!"

II: "Jářku, jářku, klouče milé"

II: "U nas v lese strasi"

II: "Jiz tyden"

II. "Zda na chvili princ vzpomene si prec"

II. "Slavnosti hudba - balet"

II: "Cely svet neda ti, neda"

II: "Kvetiny bile po ceste"

II: "Rusalko, znas mne, znas?"

II: "Vidis je, vidis? Jsou tu zas"

III: "Necitelna vodni moci"

III: "Aj, aj? Uz jsi se navratila!"

III: "Vyrvana zivotu"

III: "Ze se bojis? Tresky, plesky"

III: "Mam, mam, zlate vlasky mam"

III: "Bila moje lani! Bila moje lani"

III: "Miláčku, znáš mne znáš?"

III: "Libej mne, libej, mir mi prej"

Dvořák's Rusalka

With Asmik Grigorian (Rusalka), David Butt Philip (Prince), and Aleksei Isaev (Vodník) — Natalie Abrahami and Ann Yee (stage directors), Semyon Bychkov (conductor)

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Cast

Ann Yee — Stage director

Natalie Abrahami — Stage director

Chloe Lamford — Set designer

Annemarie Woods — Costumes designer

Paule Constable — Lighting designer

Ann Yee — Choreographer

Asmik Grigorian — Rusalka

David Butt Philip — Prince

Program notes

Don't miss Asmik Grigorian in one of the most coveted soprano roles in all of opera, featuring the famous "Song to the Moon"! In the waters of a forest lake, the nymph Rusalka (Grigorian) falls in love with a human prince and, in order to remain with him, agrees to sacrifice her voice and leave her own world behind. This fateful decision leads her to a brutal new reality: a stranger among humans, unable to speak, she discovers that the love for which she has sacrificed so much is both unfaithful and unable to come to terms with her nature…

In this poetic contemporary staging by Natalie Abrahami and Ann Yee, Antonín Dvořák’s opera becomes a meditation on our fragile relationship with nature and on humanity’s attempts to possess it. Under the musical direction of Semyon Bychkov, with an astonishing Grigorian in the title role, this production highlights the tale’s ecological and feminist undertones amid an atmosphere of intense poetry in which the quest for love and the loss of identity remain tragically intertwined.

A closer look: featured composers

Antonín Dvořák

Further listening: featured works

Rusalka, Op. 114, B. 203

Antonín Dvořák (Composer)