The Stage

Rusalka

Published Monday 6 July 2009 at 16:05 by George Hall

This is the first Glyndebourne production of a work that has become increasingly familiar to British audiences since David Pountney’s epoch-making ENO staging opened in 1983. And deservedly so, for it is one of the richest of late-Romantic scores,

Dvorak’s evocative native Czech folk idioms blend with a distinctive Wagnerian undertow in a piece as passionate as it is entrancing. It sounds wonderful with the London Philharmonic conducted by Jiri Belohlavek.

In what is her debut as an opera director, Melly Still explores the dark recesses at the heart of this tale, combining elements of traditional and constructed fairy tales (Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid lies in its background).Designer Rae Smith is aided by Paule Constable’s lighting in setting up the atmosphere of the forest lake where water nymph Rusalka meets her handsome prince, as well as the sophistication of the Prince’s court where their love affair falls spectacularly apart. Some of Rick Nodine’s movement, however, particularly with extras dressed like black Teletubbies carrying characters on and off, gets in the way.

But nothing detracts from the strong team of central performances, with Ana Maria Martinez expressively potent as the tragic heroine, Brandon Jovanovich a distinguished Prince, and Mischa Schelomianski ominously foretelling doom as Rusalka’s father and engrossing even in his Fungus the Bogeyman costume. Larissa Diadkova is a gleeful witch, Tatiana Pavlovskaya a flashy foreign Princess. It’s a deeply moving experience.