Last Saturday, I spent a big chunk of the day enjoying the Metropolitan Opera HD broadcast of Antonin Dvořák's Rusalka. The visually and vocally gorgeous Renee Fleming was superb as the tragic heroine, the water sprite Rusalka, who wants to be human so she can pursue her prince and experience human love. In this production, Rusalka sings her "Song to the Moon" from a tree above the waters of the lake. How a water sprite ended up in a tree is an interesting question, but it's not important. The plot is similar to Hans C. Andersen's story "The Little Mermaid." But, alas, Rusalka does not have a hopeful ending as does the the little mermaid who is given a soul and the promise of ascending to Heaven; and this is certainly not a happy Disneyfied fairy tale. No happy ending here. Poor, pale Rusalka is cursed to wander for eternity between life and death as a ghostly figure, neither human nor water folk.
One of the wonderful parts of the Met HD experience for me is to see the sets being moved about and assembled during the intermissions. Speaking of the sets, the illusion of Rusalka walking on the water of the lake at the end of act three was beautiful. For the non opera crowed, Renee Fleming was the beautiful soprano who sang the National Anthem at this year's Super Bowl, which game I did not watch and apparently didn't miss much.
I am looking forward to the rest of the HD broadcast season; especially Massenet's Werther with Jonas Kaufmann in March and Rossini's La Cenerentola with Joyce DiDonato in May.
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