RUSALKA
A lyrical fairy tale opera in three acts
Libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromir Erben and Božena Němcová
First performed on 31 March 1901 in Prague
CAST
Gamekeeper 
- Michel Sénéchal, tenor
Kitchen Boy - Karine Deshayes, soprano
First Wood-Nymph - Michelle Canniccioni, soprano
Second Wood-Nymph - Svetlana Lifar, soprano
Third Wood-Nymph - Nona Javakhidze, mezzo-soprano
Voice of a Huntsman - Kevin Greenlaw, baritone
Chorus & Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris conducted by James Conlon
Recorded live at the Opéra National de Paris - Bastille, June 2002
Sung in Czech, with English subtitles
Background
Kvapil's libretto based on Erben and Božena Němcová's work was written before he had any contact with the composer. The plot contains elements which also appear in The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen and in Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. The libretto was completed by 1899, when Kvapil began looking for interested composers. His composer friends were engaged on other projects, but mentioned that Dvořák was looking for a project. The composer, always interested in Erben's stories, read the libretto and composed his opera quite rapidly, with the first draft begun on 22 April 1900 and completed by the end of November. After its premiere the next year, it became an enormous success in Czech lands, though less so elsewhere. Rusalka's "Song to the Moon" (Ó Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém) is the opera's best-known aria. A rusalka is a water spirit of Slavic mythology, usually inhabiting a lake or river.
SYNOPSIS
ACT 1 - a meadow by the edge of a lake
Three wood-sprites tease Vodník, ruler of the lake. Rusalka, Vodník's daughter, tells her father she has fallen in love with a human Prince who comes to swim in the lake, and she wants to become human to embrace him. He tells her it is a bad idea but nonetheless steers her to a witch, Ježibaba, for assistance. Rusalka sings her Song to the Moon, asking it to tell the Prince of her love. Ježibaba tells Rusalka that if she become human and is betrayed by the prince, both she and the prince will be eternally damned, and that Rusalka will lose the power of speech when human. Rusalka agrees to the terms and drinks a potion. The Prince, hunting a white doe, finds Rusalka, embraces her, and leads her away, as Vodník and her sisters lament.
ACT 2 - the garden of the Prince's castle
A Gamekeeper and his nephew, the Kitchen Boy, note that the Prince is to be married to a mute and nameless bride, suspecting witchcraft and doubting it will last, as the Prince is already lavishing attentions on a Foreign Princess who is a wedding guest. The Foreign Princess, jealous, curses the couple. The Prince rejects Rusalka. Vodník takes Rusalka back to his pond. The Foreign Princess, having successfully won the Prince's affection, now scorns it.
ACT 3 - a meadow by the edge of a lake
Rusalka asks Ježibaba for a solution to her woes and is told she can save herself if she kills the Prince with the dagger she is given. Rusalka rejects this, throwing the dagger into the lake. Rusalka becomes a bludička (a spirit of death) living in the depths of the lake, emerging only to lure humans to their deaths. The Gamekeeper and the Kitchen Boy consult Ježibaba about the Prince, whom they say has been betrayed by Rusalka. Vodník says that the Prince betrayed Rusalka. The wood-nymphs mourn Rusalka's plight. The Prince, searching for his white doe, comes to the lake, senses Rusalka, and calls for her. He asks her to kiss him, even knowing her kiss means death and damnation. They kiss and he dies; and Vodník comments that "All sacrifices are futile". Rusalka thanks the Prince for letting her experience human love, commends his soul to God, and returns to her place in the depths of the lake as a demon of death.
