A Fairytale World at the Carib

What’s the difference between a wood sprite and a water nymph?

Rusalka, the tree and the moon.

In the Metropolitan Opera of New York’s production of “Rusalka,”  an opera by AntonÍn Dvorák, there are three wood sprites (in green filmy dresses) and one water nymph – Rusalka herself, in shades of watery blue. The wood sprites do a lot of fluttery dancing and running around on tiptoe, laugh a lot and show a lot of leg at times, in their gossamer green dresses. Rusalka… Well, she is not a happy wood nymph, most of the time. By the way, we enjoyed this opera at Kingston’s Carib cinema as part of an incredible “The Met: Live in HD” series, courtesy of Palace Amusement Company. We are confirmed addicts.

Dolora Zajick (right) as Jezibaba and Renee Fleming in the title role of “Rusalka.”

This beautiful lyrical opera took me back to my childhood, when I devoured books of fairy tales. My favorites were twelve collections of fairy tales, myths and legends from around the world, each one a different color. There was the Green Fairy Book, the Orange Fairy Book, the Violet Fairy Book, and so on. They were compiled by a nineteenth-century Scotsman, Andrew Lang. There were wood nymphs in some of these pages, which were also crowded with Native American warriors, fearsome Scandinavian monsters, Chinese emperors and of course, beautiful princesses and handsome princes. The story of “Rusalka” is an adaptation of a Slavic myth.

Rusalka with her Dad, the Water Gnome (John Relyea).

Back to the opera. Rusalka (sung by Renée Fleming) has fallen in love with a human – a prince, who lives in a castle in the forest. She lives in a glittering lake in the forest with her father, the Water Gnome (who is painted in shiny aqua colors and has a splendid fake torso, complete with an impressive “six-pack”). An ugly witch (well, they are always ugly aren’t they) called Jezibaba mixes up some potions for her, and Rusalka becomes mortal, so that the prince can actually see her. This is where her problems start. If you know the heartbreaking story “The Little Mermaid” (and no, I am not talking about the Disney film here) – this is the Czech version.

Renée Fleming and Piotr Beczala in “Rusalka.” (Photo: Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times)

Rusalka is one of Ms. Fleming’s signature roles. It is a challenging one with a wide range; it’s also emotionally tricky to act. She spends some of the time unable to speak (the witch’s spell did that). During most of one act, she is the losing-out one third of a love triangle between herself, the Prince and a passionate Foreign Princess in a heavy red costume (sung powerfully by Emily Magee). She spends a lot of time weeping and yearning for the impossible; Ms. Fleming portrays her with an other-worldly cool. Rusalka is, of course, completely lost in the world of humans. In the first scene, she spends most of the time sitting in the top of a tree, where she sings the “Song to the Moon,” the most well-known piece of music in the opera. It is beautiful, unearthly.

Růžena Maturová as the first Rusalka (Prague, 1901). Rusalka and her sisters loved to play among the water lilies – until things got complicated with humans.

Let me tell you about the Prince. He is played by the Polish tenor Piotr Beczala. Mr. Beczala’s voice flows with passion, tons of it. He sang the part of Lenski in the Met’s “Eugene Onegin” – possibly still my favorite in the 2013/14 season, so far. Mr. Beczala – he of the piercing blue eyes – is pretty irresistible, and it was wonderful to see and hear him in an equally romantic and tragic role.

Piotr Beczala as The Prince.

The “Rusalka” production is helmed by Montreal-born maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who is an up-and-coming star conductor at the Met. The orchestration was rich and energetic. (Photo: Metropolitan Opera)

Suffice it to say that there is no happy ending. But then, fairytales are often stories of longing and sadness. Unlike today’s predictable romantic comedies, the hero and heroine don’t always ride off into the sunset.

Which makes this fairytale perhaps more believable – even more edgy – than you might expect.

P.S. If you are an American football fan, you may recall that Renée Fleming sang the national anthem at the Superbowl last weekend. She confessed in an interview that she felt more nervous beforehand than she ever did singing opera – but the audience loved her performance. Oh, and by the way, Ms. Fleming has four Grammys.

For more on the “Live at the Met” series, which is broadcast to   countries around the world, visit: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/LiveinHD.aspx  

My review of Verdi’s “Falstaff” at the Met is here: https://petchary.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/classy-stuff-at-the-carib/

Renee Fleming singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Superbowl last Sunday, February 2. (Photo: AP)