Background
Kvapil's libretto, based on Erben's and Božena Němcová's work, was written before he had any contact with the composer. The plot contains elements which also appear in The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen and in Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, and has been described as a "sad, modern fairy tale", in a similar vein to his previous play, Princessa Pampeliška. The libretto was completed by 1899, when Kvapil began looking for composers interested in setting his text. His composer friends were engaged with other works, but mentioned that Dvořák was looking for a project. The composer, always interested in Erben's stories, read the libretto and composed his opera quite rapidly, with the first draft begun on 22 April 1900 and completed by the end of November. Coming after his four symphonic poems inspired by the folk-ballads of Erben of 1896-97, Rusalka may be viewed as the culmination of Dvořák’s exploration of a "wide variety of drama-creating musical techniques".
Dvořák's music is generally through composed, and uses motifs for Rusalka, her damnation, the water sprite and the forest. His word setting is expressive while allowing for nationally-inflected passages, and Grove judges the work shows the composer at the height of his maturity. He uses established theatrical devices – dance sections, comedy (Gamekeeper and Turnspit) and pictorial musical depiction of nature (forest and lake). Rodney Milnes (who provided the translation for an ENO production) admired the "wealth of melodic patterns that are dramatic in themselves and its shimmering orchestration". One writer considered the final section of the opera – the duet for the Prince and Rusalka - as "12 or so of the most glorious minutes in all opera" in their "majestic, almost hymnic solemnity" while another described the opera as a "vivid, profoundly disturbing drama".
Read more about this topic: Rusalka (opera)
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