Voices, visuals shine in Arizona Opera's 'Rusalka'
The problem with opera is that even when the music is timeless, the storytelling can be so very dated.
If it weren’t for the former, we wouldn’t have to put up with the latter.
Antonín Dvořák’s “Rusalka,” which has just gotten its first-ever production at Arizona Opera, premiered in Prague in 1901, putting it at the tail end of the Romantic era that gave us “La Bohème,” “Carmen” and “La Traviata,” three all-time favorites that happen to hold up beautifully in the 21st century. But “Rusalka,” with a fairy-tale libretto in Czech inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” does not fare quite as well, despite an imaginative and evocative staging by director Joshua Borths.
The music is lovely, a mix of lush lyricism and emotive outbursts that will feel instantly familiar even to opera neophytes, thanks to generations of Hollywood composers emulating the Romantics. And the singing in this production is great, with opening-night leads Sara Gartland and David Danholt delivering ravishingly nuanced arias. Their tragic finale is sung to melancholy perfection.
The visuals are equally restrained and exquisite. A great white doorway, symbolic of the punctured divide between the world of the water nymphs and that of mortal men, dominates a simple unit set designed by Mark Halpin, which is transformed throughout the performance by various embellishments, especially the pulsating colors provided by lighting designer Jeremy Dominik.
The staging is expressionistic rather than literal, so Garland’s Rusalka “floats” by standing on chairs and, in an ingenious reversal of perspective, descends to the surface of her lake to seek out the witch Ježibaba (Daveda Karanas) in hopes of procuring a magic spell to make her human.
As for the story, well, it doesn’t quite capture the spare poignancy that Andersen’s 1837 tale has on the page. Brought to life onstage, Rusalka becomes a cartoon rendering of girlish naiveté, needy and, at least to modern sensibilities, not particularly alluring. For comic relief, the Kitchen Boy (mezzo-soprano Alyssa Martin in a “trouser role”) opines that the fact Prince’s mysterious new companion is mute makes her a perfect potential mate, a verdict that the bourgeois audience of the era would no doubt have agreed with. In 2016, though, one could hardly blame the “fickle” Prince for growing tired of a lover who’s all looks and no personality.
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And just exactly who is the bad guy here, anyway? It’s the Rusalka who strikes a deal that puts not just her life but his at stake if her crush doesn’t pan out. The poor Prince certainly never signs up for that (not that the voiceless and presumably illiterate Rusalka could actually warn him).
Then there’s Rusalka’s rival for the handsome Prince’s affections, a Foreign Princess (Alexandra Loutsion) who turns out to be a conniving Mean Girl straight out of the 19th-century misogynist’s handbook. Neither the heroine nor the villains in this tale are complex to be compelling, giving the audience no one to really root for or against.
It is customary to praise classic works as “universal,” and yes, love and loss are universal themes. But the way those themes play out in “Rusalka” is rooted in the conventions — both social and narrative — of its time, which don’t really resonate in ours.
Happily, however, the primal emotions expressed in the singing will never go out of style.
Reach the reviewer at kerry.lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4896.
Arizona Opera: ‘Rusalka’
Reviewed: Friday, Nov. 11.
Remaining performances: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13. (Also Nov. 19-20 at Tucson Music Hall.)
Where: Symphony Hall, 75 N. Second St., Phoenix.
Admission: $25-$135.
Details: 602-266-7464, azopera.org.
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