[Met Performance] CID:314440

Metropolitan Opera Premiere, New Production

Rusalka
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, November 11, 1993

Debut : Kathryn Krasovec, Sylvia Strahammer




Rusalka (1)
Anton?n Dvor?k | Jaroslav Kvapil
Rusalka
Gabriela Benackov?

Prince
Neil Rosenshein

Princess
Janis Martin

Jezibaba
Dolora Zajick

Gnome
Sergei Koptchak

Kitchen Boy
Wendy White

Gamekeeper
James Courtney

First Sprite
Korliss Uecker

Second Sprite
Kathryn Krasovec [Debut]

Third Sprite
Kitt Reuter-Foss

Hunter
Christopher Schaldenbrand


Conductor
John Fiore


Production
Otto Schenk

Set Designer
G?nther Schneider-Siemssen

Costume Designer
Sylvia Strahammer [Debut]

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Choreographer
Carmen De Lavallade

Anton?n Dvor?k



Rusalka received nine performances this season.

FUNDING:
Production a gift of Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation

Review 1:

Review of John W. Freeman in Opera News

The season's next Met first, "Rusalka," also marked the company debut of its composer, Anton?n Dvor?k, though the work is a staple in his Czech homeland. No one familiar with the symphonies or Slavonic Dances needs to be told that Dvor?k had both lyricism and rhythmic energy to spare, but in "Rusalka" he relied much more on the former than the latter. The score tends to lie still in the water unless stirred along by a conductor more determined than John Fiore evidently was to get it moving. The gloriously intoned but rather inert title characterization of Gabriela Benackov? may have held him back. Neil Rosenshein, too light and lyric a tenor for the Prince, came into his own only in the lovely final scene. Bass Sergei Koptchak, on the other hand, was a pillar of strength as the Water Gnome, a father no less harsh, but considerably warmer, than Lina's in "Stiffelio."

As a stage production, designed by Gunther Schneider-Siemssen (costumes: Sylvia Strahammer) and staged by Schenk, "Rusalka" emerged a veritable paean to romanticism. It might have helped to reserve for Act II the autumnal look of the forest in Act I, but the lake had an alluring shimmer sorely missed in Act III, where the pond appeared little more than a drainage ditch - given the paramount importance of water in this story, a serious oversight. The down-to-earth rustics (the Gamekeeper and his nephew, the Kitchen Boy) were played to a fare-thee-well by James Courtney and the terminally terrified Wendy White. Their counterpart in the natural/supernatural realm, Dolora Zajick as the witch Jezibaba, had a romp, gloriously in her element. Janis Martin, on the other hand, rated well at the thankless task of personifying the inhuman side of humanity as the Foreign Princess, all coldness, artifice and disdain.

Photograph of Gabriela Benackova as the title role in Rusalka by Winnie Klotz/Metropolitan Opera.



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