It’s an interesting idea, but one that rings hollow given that the libretto focuses almost exclusively on Rusalka’s internal emotional state. In this version, Rusalka is a dream of sorts of the unhappily married Prince as laid out in a pantomime that opens the staging. McVicar’s take on the story emphasizes the role of the Prince who rejects Rusalka’s love and later regrets it greatly. This tale of a water nymph who makes a bargain with a witch to become human and pursue a man she loves has been steadily growing in operatic popularity over the last thirty years thanks in no small part to a number of advocates including Charles Mackerras and Fleming herself. SFO imported the production from Lyric Opera Chicago for their second ever presentation of Rusalka following a company premiere with Reneé Fleming in the title role in 1995. Perfect in that the weather outside easily mimicked the dark, gloomy, latter-day Victoriana, which is the preferred stomping ground of David McVicar, the new production’s director. It was grey, cold, and overcast in San Francisco last weekend perhaps the perfect weather to complement San Francisco Opera’s premiere of Dvorak’s Rusalka on Sunday. But even so, it’s formidably strong, and the big confrontations have undeniable force and veracity.Rachel Willis-Sorensen and Brandon Jovanovich in Rusalka Photo: Cory Weaver 2019
There are occasional quirks: Alessandra Volpe’s sexually provocative Amneris and Rafael Rojas’s troubled Radamès have clearly been having an affair before the opera starts Alexandra Zabala’s Aida has resistance on her mind well before Eric Greene’s Amonasro suggests it and Rojas, returning from battle, is very obviously suffering from PTSD. Wearing street clothes, the chorus, as in Greek drama, become omnipresent witnesses to the tragedy in which they also participate. Video projections of bombed-out buildings and screaming faces tell us we are in a modern-day war zone, possibly in the Middle East. W e tend to think of Aida primarily in terms of epic grandiosity, but are we right to do so? With its relentless narrative and taut structure – a sequence of dialogues separated by ritual choruses – the dramaturgy of Verdi’s opera is almost classical in its severity, a point brought home by Annabel Arden’s new semi-staging for Opera North, the latest in the company’s series of productions of large-scale works tailored to concert venues rather than theatres.Īrden hauls the opera out of ancient Egypt into the present.
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