Early in Act I of “Rusalka,” the witch Ježibaba mixes a lethal potion. Her client, Rusalka, is a dreamy adolescent mermaid who yearns to become human. She’s smitten with a daft prince wearing a fancy uniform whom she saw briefly last week when she swam to and peeked above waterline.
Ježibaba offers a two-part deal. After drinking the magic potion, Rusalka will get a pair of new, but very painful, legs and lose her voice forever. Ježibaba stirs various ingredients into a roiling caldron then cuts out Rusalka’s tongue and returns the potion to a simmer. The little mermaid drinks and gets her wish. She’s now a mortal with legs but no speech. Some deal.
Ježibaba is a minor character in Dvorák’s opera “Rusalka,” but she’s important. The impressive American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton will sing the role in Saturday’s The MET Live in HD, starting at 11 a.m. in the Fort Lewis College Student Union. If you are fascinated by fairy tales and want to see a dark rendering of “The Little Mermaid,” don’t miss this production.
Dvorák’s opera harks back to Slavic mythology where a rusalka is a water sprite. In 1900, the Czech poet Jaroslav Kvapil presented the composer with a libretto based on the popular tale. It struck the established composer as a compelling idea for an opera and their fanciful new work premiered in Prague on March 31, 1901.
If you know Hans Christian Andersen’s 1874 version, it’s remarkably similar. And now The Metropolitan Opera has given “Rusalka” a new, irridescent sheen thanks to the directorial imagination of Mary Zimmerman. Primarily a theater director, Zimmerman’s known for reinterpreting Greek mythology and European fairy tales in Broadway productions. She won a Tony Award for “Metamorphoses.” By the by, Merely Players staged an imaginative version of that a few years ago – in a local hotel swimming pool.
Act I of the Czech opera is set in a meadow by a pond and is closer to the Slavic myth than Andersen’s undersea variation. Reading reviews of the Met’s opening, something’s disturbing from the beginning. Rusalka (sung by soprano Kristine Opolais) is restless, yearning over the prince and her fate. So she turns to Ježibaba (Barton). The sorceress now is a Victorian, steampunk matron running a crazy medical practice.
Zimmerman and her designers are famous for mixing periods and styles. It’s a contemporary mode that enhances a sense of unease and discomfort.
In a swiftly moving first act, the Prince (tenor Brandon Jovanovich) finds the transformed Rusalka on dry land. He carries her off to his castle. Now she’s wearing a white sleeveless dress and behaves in a suitably demure manner. Wearing a dashing 18th-century hunting coat, the prince wraps it around the fragile mermaid-cum-damsel. Romance follows.
By Act II, the story has moved swiftly toward wedding plans. A rival for the prince’s affection arrives, merely named A Foreign Princess. Mean-girl villain that she is, she mocks Rusalka, and there’s trouble in the castle. Rusalka leaves heartbroken. Act III furthers the intermingling of human and supernatural worlds with its Romantic-era mixture of pain and beauty.
Dvorák’s opera is for grown-ups. It’s the height of swoony, gorgeous Romantic music, especially Rusalka’s “Song to the Moon” and the love duet later. And then, there’s Ježibaba, who knows how to concoct the art of the deal.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theater Critics Association.
If you go
What: The MET: Live in HD presents Antonin Dvorák’s “Rusalka.” Based on a Slavic fairy tale, with libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil, featuring Kristine Opolais in the title role, Brandon Jovanovich as the Prince, Jamie Barton as Ježibaba, in a new production designed by Mary Zimmerman, conducted by Sir Mark Elder.
When: 10:55 a.m. Saturday.
Where: Vallecito Room, Fort Lewis College Student Union.
Tickets: $23 general, $21 seniors, students and MET members. Available online at www.durangoconcerts.com, by phone at 247-7657 or at the Welcome Center at Eighth Street and Main Avenue, or at the door. Note: Surcharges may apply.
More information: Running time is 3 hours 55 minutes. With English subtitles.
