RUSALKADvorˇák Cheryl Barker CHAN 10449(3) Opera Australia Richard105 Hickox CCHANHAN 110449(3)0449(3) BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 1104-10504-105 220/11/070/11/07 117:01:587:01:58 Antonín Dvořák (1841 – 1904) RUSALKA An opera in three acts Libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil, after Undine by Friedrich Heinrich de la Motte Fouqué A production by Opera Australia recorded live at the Lebrecht Music & Arts Photo Library Sydney Opera House in March 2007 Wood Nymphs Sarah Crane soprano Taryn Fiebig soprano Dominica Matthews mezzo-soprano Water Sprite Bruce Martin bass Rusalka Cheryl Barker soprano Ježibaba Anne-Marie Owens mezzo-soprano Prince Rosario La Spina tenor Gamekeeper / Huntsman Barry Ryan baritone Kitchen Boy Sian Pendry soprano Foreign Princess Elizabeth Whitehouse soprano Wedding Guests; Water Nymphs Opera Australia Chorus Michael Black chorus master Kate Golla assistant chorus master Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra Richard Hickox Stephen Mould assistant conductor Antonín Dvořák Aubrey Murphy concertmaster 3 CCHANHAN 110449(3)0449(3) BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 22-3-3 220/11/070/11/07 117:01:017:01:01 Opera Australia Chorus soprano Chloris Bath mezzo Caroline Clack tenor Dean Bassett cello Zoltan Szabo cor anglais Andrew Malec trombone Gregory van der Struik Helen Borthwick Jane Dunstan David Corcoran Eszter Mikes-Liu* William Farmer Annabelle Chaff ey Vanessa Lewis Warren Fisher Henry Urbanavicius** clarinet Peter Jenkin Nigel Crocker Angela Brewer Ke-Lu Ma David Lewis Margaret Iddison Richard Rourke* Lisa Cooper Lynette Murray Kent McIntosh Pierre Emery bass trombone Brett Page Elizabeth Ellis Sandra Oldis Th omas Moran Victoria Parkin bass clarinet Euan Huggett Marjory McKay Margaret Plummer Peter Rees tuba Matthew Walmsley Julia Malczewski Caroline Vercoe bass Luke Gabbedy bassoon Douglas Eyre Jane Parkin Tom Hamilton bass Brett Berthold Gillian Hansen timpani David Clarence Katrina Sheppeard Andrew Jones Andrew Meisel* Charlie Kedmenec Edmund Bastian horn Michelle Perry percussion Bruce Cotterill Andrew Moran David Cooper Anton Schroeder Darryl Turner* Walter Sutcliff e Saul Lewis Allan Watson* Dorit Herskovitz Victoria Chatterley Timothy Paillas Lisa Wynne-Allen Bree Van Reyk Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra fl ute Elizabeth Pring Francesco Lo Surdo Jeremy Barnett Alistair Howlett violin Aubrey Murphy Virginia Blunt viola Amanda Murphy* trumpet Bruce Hellmers harp Jane Rosenson Sun Yi Rachel Easton David Wicks piccolo Diane Berger Brian Evans Huy-Nguyen Bui Samuel Podjarski David Dixon Peter Wiseman Adrian Keating Daniel Rosenbaum Magda Kruszynska oboe Conall McClure Tony Gault Robert Sek Marilyn Wilson Mark Bruwel Rebecca Irwin Jaroslaw Talar Gregory Ford Marek Kruszynski Ursula Nelius Vera Marcu Rachel Westwood Jennifer Taylor Lucie Miller Patrick Wong Robin Wilson Airena Nakamura Belinda Jezek Stephanie Zarka Doreen Cumming Kiyondo Ishizaka Jane Stanley Concertmaster: Aubrey Murphy Associate Concertmaster: Sun Yi Deputy Concertmaster: Huy-Nguyen Bui Italics denotes Principal * denotes Associate Principal ** denotes Deputy Principal/Section Soloist 4 5 CCHANHAN 110449(3)0449(3) BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 44-5-5 220/11/070/11/07 117:01:147:01:14 COMPACT DISC ONE Time Page Time Page 11 ‘A young Huntsman was once out riding’ 4:53 p. 64 Act I Huntsman A forest glade at the edge of a lake. A moonlit night. 12 ‘Divine vision, sweetest being’ 4:31 p. 65 1 Prelude 4:24 p. 52 Prince 2 Allegro molto. ‘Ho, ho, ho’ 4:28 p. 52 Wood Nymphs 13 ‘I know you’re nothing but magic’ 2:06 p. 67 Prince 3 ‘You are most welcome here in the lake’ 3:24 p. 53 TT 54:04 Water Sprite 4 ‘Father Water Sprite!’ 4:17 p. 55 COMPACT DISC TWO Rusalka 5 ‘He often comes here’ 4:31 p. 56 Act II Rusalka A park surrounding the Prince’s palace. 1 6 ‘O moon in the velvet heavens’ 4:50 p. 57 ‘Tell me all, dear boy’ 4:07 p. 67 Rusalka Gamekeeper 2 7 ‘Th e water feels cold!’ 3:19 p. 58 ‘Our forest is haunted’ 3:48 p. 69 Rusalka Gamekeeper 3 8 ‘With your ancient wisdom, you know everything’ 3:02 p. 59 ‘You have now been with me for a week’ 5:07 p. 71 Rusalka Prince 4 9 ‘I know that, I know that’ 6:24 p. 60 ‘Ah, this reproach comes not before time’ 3:46 p. 72 Ježibaba Prince 5 10 ‘Abracadabra’ 3:50 p. 62 Ballet. Andante – Moderato maestoso 6:51 p. 73 Ježibaba 6 7 CCHANHAN 110449(3)0449(3) BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 66-7-7 220/11/070/11/07 117:01:157:01:15 Time Page Time Page 6 ‘No-one in the world can give you…’ 4:09 p. 73 4 ‘You must wash away Nature’s curse’ 5:08 p. 81 Water Sprite Ježibaba 7 ‘White blossoms along the road’ 5:58 p. 74 5 ‘I am torn from life’ 4:01 p. 82 Wedding Guests Rusalka 8 ‘Oh, it’s all in vain!’ 2:54 p. 76 6 ‘Are you afraid?’ 3:55 p. 83 Rusalka Gamekeeper 9 ‘Do you see them?’ 3:19 p. 76 7 ‘Our prince has Fallen dangerously ill’ 4:07 p. 86 Rusalka Kitchen Boy 10 ‘But when my fi re has burnt you out’ 3:36 p. 77 8 ‘I have golden tresses’ 7:45 p. 87 Foreign Princess First Wood Nymph TT 43:40 9 ‘My white doe!’ 4:47 p. 89 Prince COMPACT DISC THREE 10 ‘Beloved, do you recognise me?’ 2:21 p. 90 Act III Rusalka Th e lakeside glade. Night is drawing on. 11 ‘Why did you enfold me in your arms…?’ 5:23 p. 91 1 ‘Unfeeling watery power’ 4:00 p. 79 Rusalka Rusalka 12 ‘Kiss me, kiss me, give me peace’ 5:57 p. 91 2 ‘Deprived of my youth’ 4:18 p. 79 Prince Rusalka TT 54:53 3 ‘Aha! Are you back already?’ 3:06 p. 80 Ježibaba 8 9 CCHANHAN 110449(3)0449(3) BBooklet.inddooklet.indd 88-9-9 220/11/070/11/07 117:01:167:01:16 completion in 1888 of Th e Jacobin (Jakobín), so, Dvořák never let posterity know what it Dvořák: Rusalka Dvořák’s semi-comic masterpiece, a richly was. In his next symphony, the celebrated textured and gloriously lyrical celebration ‘New World’, Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha of the reconciliation between a father and a was a major infl uence. During his stay in Given its subject matter, the hugely successful Dvořák and opera prodigal son, and the Czech love of music. the United States, between 1892 and 1895, premiere of Dvořák’s Rusalka on 31 March By the time Dvořák came to write Rusalka, Dvořák’s two serious operas from the Dvořák did not write the great American 1900 was one of the more unexpected triumphs he was a seasoned opera composer with nine 1870s and 1880s, the grand operas Vanda opera for which his employer at the National in Czech opera at the turn of the century. works to his credit. His fi rst two operas, the and Dimitrij, stood aside from the Modernist Conservatory of Music in New York, Th e prevailing preoccupation of Dvořák’s Wagnerian Alfred – to a German text – and tendencies of Smetana’s tragic Dalibor and Mrs Th urber, had hoped, although this did (mostly younger) operatic contemporaries the startlingly experimental comedy Th e King his festival opera, Libuše, and the more not prevent the Musical Times stating that was that sensational novelty of the 1890s, and the Charcoal-Burner (Král a uhlíř), were Wagnerian paths being explored by Zdeněk his operatic treatment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin verismo. Th e Prague premiere of Mascagni’s out of tune with Czech operatic tastes in the Fibich in his music drama, Th e Bride of was eagerly awaited. Instead, Dvořák devoted Cavalleria rusticana in 1891 precipitated 1870s (neither reached the stage in Dvořák’s Messina (Nevěsta Messinská). In neither work himself in this period to a root and branch widespread enthusiasm among both audiences lifetime). However, he soon knuckled did Dvořák set out to be experimental and revision of his grand opera, Dimitrij, taking and composers. Even the old hands of the down to producing a series of comedies in perhaps because of this Dimitrij in particular it a considerable way toward Wagnerian Czech national revival, such as Karel Bendl the mould pioneered by Smetana and his produced an enthusiastic response from music drama, and two years after he returned and Richard Rozkošný, threw themselves into librettist Sabina in Th e Bartered Bride, one Czech audiences through the 1880s (unlike to Prague he made extensive changes to the new realism with enthusiasm, although clearly favoured by Prague audiences. A Fibich’s Bride which inexorably emptied the Th e Jacobin. neither managed to provide the Czechs with a remarkable part of Dvořák’s journey toward opera house). local equivalent to ‘Cav and Pag’. Th e younger greater orthodoxy was his resetting of Dvořák’s post-American operatic career Dvořák and Kvapil’s ‘Rusalka’ generation was also drawn to realist subject Th e King and the Charcoal-Burner to was rather diff erent. Disillusioned with the In his later years Dvořák was much matter: Foerster’s Eva had a reasonable success; completely new music much more akin symphony and abstract music in general, preoccupied with the folk-inspired ballads but the greatest work of this new trend was to the manner of Smetana; it proved a he turned to Czech folklore for inspiration. of Karel Jaromir Erben. A popular poet and Janáček’s Jenůfa. moderate success during its fi rst run and A programmatic tendency was beginning translator, notably of Goethe, Erben also Composed at more or less the same time, was followed by two more comedies during to emerge strongly in his works from the provided Bohemia with a comprehensive Rusalka inhabits a moonlit world far removed the 1870s: a one-acter, Th e Stubborn Lovers late 1880s, notably in the ‘Triple overture’, collection of ‘Czech folksongs and nursery from the aggravated emotions of Czech (Tvrdé palice), and Th e Cunning Peasant Nature, Life and Love, to the extent that rhymes’.