RUSALKA Comes to the National Theatre in Prague This Month

Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka is a true gem of Czech opera, one that has won over audiences worldwide. Ardent melodies, both tender and dramatically extreme, the composer's masterful work with musical motifs and full-blooded orchestration, as well as Jaroslav Kvapil's fabulous libretto, evoking K. J. Erben's simple yet immensely forcible ballads, make Rusalka a work of fascinating beauty addressing audiences of all ages.

Rusalka has customarily been deemed a "mere" fairy-tale. To be sure, there is no doubt that the fantastic story and the characters of the wood nymphs, the water goblin and the witch are of a fairy-tale ilk, yet in its fairy-tale scenes Dvořák's masterpiece bears an enciphered profound message about the fundamental order of forces, elements, energies and passions in the natural, and therefore also human, world.

Performances run through January 2023.