Opera is an ice-cold fairy-tale

RUSALKA, Lowry, Salford

SEVEN years on, Opera North returns to Dvorak’s best known opera with several of the original cast, including the soprano who played the title character last time.

Ireland’s Giselle Allen made a real name for herself as the sad water nymph in Olivia Fuchs’s original production, her range providing both lyrical beauty in the likes of the famous “Hymn to the Moon”, and a much harder tone in later passages, when the character’s anguish and dilemma are all too clear.

This time round, the singer is more mature, has greater warmth of tone and by her own admission and the evidence of an audience’s ears, sings the role with even greater beauty and authority.

The cast around her pulls no punches in delivering the composer’s mixture of lyricism and sentiment either. Richard Angas as the water goblin, and Richard Berkeley-Steele as the all-too-human prince, offer strong representations of, in the former case, Rusalka’s rueful grandfather, and in the latter, her vacillating suitor.

The story has deliberate elements of the fairy-tale “The Little Mermaid”, mixed with a Czech folk tale that remains extremely popular among adults and children alike.

Rusalka lives with her sisters in the cold lake and longs to be human so she can love the Prince. She makes a pact with witch Jezibaba to achieve human form, but remains mute and cursed to spend eternity rejected and alone should the Prince fall out of love with her.

Rejected by the court for her lack of speech, and plotted against by a rival for the prince’s affections (Susannah Glanville), Rusalka begs Jezibaba to make her immortal again.

Opera North’s production has been praised many times for its effectiveness and resplendent singing and playing (Czech conductor Oliver von Dohnanyi clearly loves the score and offers a lush sound) but I find this is one of those productions you have to be in the mood to watch.

Catch it right and it is a fine mixture of coldness and passion, clarity of purpose and a satisfyingly sad outcome. But catch it on the wrong day and its ice-cold set and lighting, air of doom and Rusalka’s clearly barmy fondness for a royal moron, makes it just another annoying fairytale.