Picture: Andrew Perry
Rusalka continues at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre until 9 August 2022.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
A giant steel disc dominates Tom Piper’s set. It lifts to reveal the murky green waters below, where Rusalka and her fellow water nymphs live. Above ground we see a fin de siècle wrought iron gantry, ropes and pulleys. Man has taken over the landscape and is killing nature. ‘Our watery hole has been spoiled by human filth’ cries Vodnik the water goblin in the final act.
Jack Furness’ production lays its cards out from the off: above and below are two very different worlds, and the joy of the water nymphs as they fly, swing and tumble on ropes above the lake is contrasted with the grim artifice of the Prince’s kingdom, where the ropes are now used to hang the carcasses of slaughtered deer, and where the Prince’s subjects move with stiff and arrogant demeanour.
This production, premiered by Garsington Opera earlier this summer, is an absolute triumph. Furness and his designers and cast have worked seamlessly to create a vision that tells the tale simply, yet exquisitely. Every moment is measured and clear.
From the high flying acrobats of the nymphs (choreographed by Fleur Darkin and Lina Johansson) to the moment of utter shock as Rusalka watches her Prince cut the heart out of a doe and offer it to the cold, imperious Foreign Princess, this production is both thrilling and heart-breaking.
‘You are my precious doe’ the Prince proclaims to Rusalka in Act I – and here he is destroying the very thing he has chased. When the two worlds collide, then the production truly takes flight: Rusalka’s innocence and embarrassment as she tries to copy the manufactured dance moves of the chorus is upsetting to watch and as the courtiers wheel on a bed and undress her to please her prince, this society rape perfectly sums up mankind’s destructive dominance over nature.
The cast clamber and crawl around the set as if it were second nature to them. And what a cast! Natalya Romaniw stuns with her performance. Her voice has that rich, generous quality that can convey every aspect of the character of the water nymph. Even when mute in Act II her acting is so tender and well-observed that she broke my heart without singing a note. This is sheer luxury casting. As her unnamed prince, Gerard Schneider has a muscular tone that suits the role perfectly, and when the two finally go all guns blazing in the rapturously saddening final duet the result is quite staggering.
Vodnik, as played by Musa Ngqungwana, has a still and powerful energy, especially in the latter acts when he infiltrates the world above to reclaim his daughter. As Jezibaba , the witch, Christine Rice emerges from a lair made out of a human skull, truly gothic in appearance like a cross between Norma Desmond and Bloody Mary, her voice stern and dark, barely masking the anger and spite beneath.
Honourable mentions too to Sky Ingram whose icy tones are perfect as the Foreign Princess, to John Findon and Grace Durham who provide gentle comic relief as the cook and his niece, and to the trio of water nymphs who sing exquisitely whilst suspended and swinging from ropes on high.
If the pace of the orchestra at times seems a little expansive, conductor Douglas Boyd wrings every nuance from this complex score. I’ve never seen a production of Dvořák’s Rusalka where the Wagnerian tones of the Prince’s kingdom and the more modern impressionistic lilts of the water kingdom are so marked and clear.
At the final curtain there was a spontaneous standing ovation from the entire audience. “This never happens in Edinburgh” remarked the woman next to me. What greater praise could I give?
Haunting, heart-breaking and honest.
Fraser Grant
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