Opera 'Rusalka' premieres in Seoul
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A scene from “Rusalka” / Courtesy of KNO
By Yun Suh-young
The Korean premiere of Antonin Dvorak's opera "Rusalka" will be performed in Seoul today at the Seoul Arts Center. The opera by Czech composer is presented by the Korea National Opera (KNO) and is being performed for the first time in the country.
The opera is a mysterious and tragic story about a water nymph that falls in love with a human but faces sad consequences. One day the nymph Rusalka, who lives by a lake, meets a human prince in the misty woods. The two immediately fall in love but soon after, Rusalka is betrayed. With a broken heart, she becomes a spirit of death living in the depths of the lake, killing the prince with her kiss.
The mysterious story of Rusalka is the Czech version of "Undine" which is a German romance novel by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque on the fatal love of a water fairy named Undine and a knight. The three-act opera “Rusalka” premiered in Prague in 1901.
Today’s premiere of “Rusalka” is directed by the KNO’s artistic director Kim Hak-min and conducted by Chung Chi-yong. “Rusalka” is performed by sopranos Lee Yu-nah and Seo Sun-young and the prince is performed by tenors Kim Dong-won and Kwon Jae-heui.
The mise-en-scene of the production is particularly noteworthy as the stage is created to maximize the mystical elements of the story, such as using real water to fall as rain on the stage.
"As this is the Korean premiere of the opera and a production entirely performed by a Korean cast, there are some differences from the original production. But that doesn't mean the storyline changed or huge changes were made. I just found something out of the score. Everything was in there. I didn't invent, but I discovered and interpreted," said artistic director Kim Hak-min during an interview with The Korea Times.
"I approached Rusalka with a human touch and I wanted it to be a touching story."
It is unusual for an artistic director who is in charge of the organization to take the helm of directing a production.
"By a new production, I mean new scenery, new costumes, new lighting, new musical interpretation and new direction. I wanted to show something more to the story. I wanted to show the audience where and how we live are much like the second act. By contrasting our lives with pure fairies, I wanted the audience to hope for a world like that which is pure," said Kim.
"One of the important themes in this opera is nature vs. culture, eternity vs. temporality, purity vs. experience. Once purity is gone, nothing can be pure as it used to be ― that's nature's law. After Rusalka returns to nature, she realizes that she is not as pure as before and will live a condemned life forever. But I didn't want that to be the end. There should be hope. That's why we needed rain and light from behind so the audience can expect Rusalka to be happy further. We wanted to show that possibility."
The performance run will end on May 1.