*Asmik Grigorian* (Rusalka); *David Butt Philip* (Prince); *Aleksei Isaev* (Vodnik); *Emma Bell* (Duchess); *Sarah Connolly* (Ježibaba); *Ross Ramgobin* (Hajny); *Hongni Wu* (Kuchtík); The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House; Royal Opera Chorus; *Semyon Bychkov*
Stage Director: *Bridget Caldwell*
Rusalka, a water spirit, lives with her family in the pure waters of the forest lake. When she falls in love with a Prince, she sacrifices her voice and leaves her home in the hope of finding true love in a new world – a world that does not love her back.
*Natalie Abrahami* and *Ann Yee* create a poetic, contemporary staging of Dvořák’s lyric fairy tale, revealing our uneasy relationship with the natural world and humanity’s attempts to own and tame it. *Semyon Bychkov* conducts an all-star cast featuring *Asmik Grigorian* in the title role.
*"... a superb cast with no weak links ... On the podium Semyon Bychkov was equally responsive to the folksy lilt and expansive lyricism in this glorious score. Annemarie Woods supplied striking costumes and Paule Constable evocative lighting to complete the five-woman team responsible for this remarkable feminist-orientated and incidentally ecologically sustainable production."* (The Evening Standard ★★★★)
*"Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian has a voice in a thousand. Then – first heard in the distance – comes the voice of the prince, British tenor David Butt Philip, a sweetly expressive foil to the protagonist."* (The Independent ★★★)
*"Ann Yee and Natalie Abrahami’s thoughtful and effective new production shapes Dvorák’s opera into a tale of mankind versus nature. A first-rate cast is matched by Semyon Bychkov in the pit.*
*Asmik Grigorian’s first Rusalka in the UK doesn’t disappoint: her polished-steel soprano glints and flashes. David Butt Philip is her outstanding match as the fickle Prince, his tenor soaring, and the rest of the cast is first-rate, from Emma Bell’s imperious yet flirty Duchess ... to the comic pair of Ross Ramgobin and Hongni Wu as the forester and his nephew. All are supported at every turn by Bychkov’s wonderfully elastic and idiomatic-sounding orchestra. Yee and Abrahami may have transformed rags into riches on stage but it’s in the pit that the magic of this Rusalka really happens."* (The Guardian ★★★★)
Available on DVD: [ Ссылка ]
Available on Blu-ray: [ Ссылка ]
