Rusalka - Antonín Dvořák

The longing for freedom and the promises of the unknown are what lure Rusalka from her world – with fatal consequences! Star director Vasily Barkhatov tells the story of the girl rebelling against external and internal chains as a parable about the desire to seek happiness in a foreign world. In Graz, internationally acclaimed soprano Nadja Mchantaf embarks on this quest. By her side as the warning water sprite: ensemble member Daeho Kim.

Rusalka wants to break free! She finds the world she lives in too confining. Despite all warnings, she dares to take the step into the unknown and must pay a high price for it. She loses the ability to communicate and cannot find her footing in the unfamiliar world. A reversal is no longer possible without profound consequences. In the fairy tale interpreted as an allegory, Dvořák sensually brings the opposing spheres together in grand symphonic sounds, and Rusalka’s attempt to unite the two worlds fails.
Vasily Barkhatov, who was recently celebrated for his productions of Norma at the Theater an der Wien and Lady Macbeth of Mzensk at the season opening of La Scala in Milan, captures the allegorical character of the story and portrays Rusalka as a young woman who breaks out of the hermetically sealed world of an orthodox convent into a seemingly more open, passionate world – with irreversible consequences for her.

In Czech with German surtitles

Tickets

Public transport: Tram 1, 7 I Stop: Kaiser-Josef Platz/Oper