Met Opera: Renée Fleming in Rusalka

Yesterday evening's performance of Rusalka by Antonin Dvorak featured soprano Renée Fleming in one her signature roles.  This was the first opportunity I'd had to hear Ms. Fleming this season and I was eagerly anticipating her appearance in a part which I'd never before heard her sing.

The opera itself was first performed in Prague in 1901 and was one of Dvorak's last major works before his death in 1904.  He composed the opera to a libretto completed by Jaroslav Kvapil, director of the National Theater in Prague, in 1899 before he had even met Dvorak.  The composer had always had a great interest in his homeland's folk music and folklore and was already familiar with the classic fairy tales by Karel Erben on which Kvapil's libretto was based.  These provided a perfect setting for Dvorak's music.  He had played viola at various opera orchestras in his student days and was able to complete the score fairly rapidly.

Although I am a great fan of Dvorak's work, I do not believe his strength lay in operatic composition.  While Rusalka contains a some of Dvorak's most beautiful music - and that is saying a great deal - it often seems to drift and lacks the dramatic focus needed to sustain audience attention over a long period of time (three hours, not counting intermissions).  In addition, the work contains one of the most bizarre plot devices to be found in any opera - when Rusalka drinks the magic potion toward the end of Act I, she immediately loses the power of speech.  As a result, Ms. Fleming spends almost the entirety of Act II miming her part onstage and not singing a single note.  There are other problems with the plot as well.  As Michael Beckerman notes in the program guide:

"The Prince is not simply an inconstant lover, punished by the spirit world for his philandering, but rather a victim of an inevitable series of consequences stemming from a supernatural agreement he never accepted or understood."

Aside from Ms. Fleming, the cast included tenor Piotr Beczala as the Prince and Dolora Zajick as the Witch.  Both were extremely capable in their parts. The conductor was Yannick Nézet-Séguin who displayed a great deal of sensitivity to Dvorak's music and whose work on the podium was excellent.  The production itself was designed in 1993 by Otto Schenk.  This was long before the Met commenced its misguided quest for "relevance" in its set designs. It is a shame that if one wishes to see a Met production that is both beautiful and evocative, one must generally limit oneself to attending these older productions.