Dvorak: Rusalka Blu-ray Review
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. . .
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, April 1, 2012
Years ago when my boys were toddlers I picked up a VHS (remember those?) of the old Disney film
Darby O'Gill and the
Little People, which I thought they would find moderately entertaining. Little did I foresee the shrieks of terror from
my older boy (then probably four or so) when the film's banshee came on screen. In fact I joked with my wife that night
that the banshee's wailing was nothing compared to our son's, who may have made the neighbors wonder if some
horrible parental abuse were occurring. Female ghosts of all sorts seem to somehow have more spookiness than male
spirits, perhaps because women are often thought of as being (forgive me for any political incorrectness) the fairer sex, or
at least the nicer one. Somehow the idea of a female spirit is instantly more disturbing than that of your everyday guy,
and perhaps for that reason women spirits have often been used in folklore, myth and legend to fantastic effect by any
number of cultures (witness the banshee for an excellent example).
Rusalka is one of the most popular Czech
operas ever written, composed by Czechoslovokia's "national" composer, Antonin Dvorak, setting a libretto by Jaroslav
Kvapil. This evocative piece may remind folktale lovers of another story where a water borne woman yearns for a human
man, wishing with all her might to assume a human form in order to consummate their relationship. But
Rusalka is
like the flip side of
The Little Mermaid. This is no candy colored fairy tale with a sugar coated happy ending, and
instead is much more of a tragedy playing out in a world seemingly devoid of hope and focused squarely on mortality and
decay.
What is it with productions of Czech operas and stages awash in water? Last year saw the Blu-ray release of a Madrid
Teatro Real production of Leos Janacek's
Katia Kabanova, a production that brought that opera's depiction of the Volga rather
brilliantly to life. Now we have Janacek's countryman Dvorak getting the wet and wild treatment with this similarly
damp
staging of
Rusalka, except that in this case the water isn't confined to merely slippery stage floors. In one
scene
that may provoke a few giggles from the less soberly inclined, Rusalka (Kristina Opolais) actually crawls into a small fish
aquarium to supposedly reacquaint herself with the joys of home. A
rusalka in the Slavic languages is a water
nymph, often a spirit who lured men to their deaths, and here the character Rusalka is the daughter of the Water
Goblin
(Gunther Groissböck), a dark and brooding figure who keeps Rusalka and his other daughters imprisoned in a watery
cellar in one of this opera's must stunning pieces of stagecraft. The opera opens with the boorish Water Goblin, replete
with yellow stained t-shirt, popping a can of beer and having a smoke while his hapless wife Jezibaba (Janina Baechel)
looks on, terrified, obviously the victim of domestic abuse. Then the stage rises on what must be hydraulic lifts,
revealing
Rusalka and her siblings in their watery "grave" below.
Regular readers of my opera reviews here at Blu-ray.com know I do not suffer so-called Eurotrash gladly, and this
production pushes the
envelope fairly far in that regard, but—guess what? It actually works for this property, at least most of the time.
Director Martin Kusej was
evidently inspired (if that's even the right word) by two notorious kidnapping case involving women locked away for
years, sometimes
decades, and he invests this production with a dark Freudian subtext that veers warily between signs of Stockholm
Syndrome and outright
incest. It's a disturbing formulation, one only added to by Groissböck's visceral portrayal of the Water Goblin. His
groping caresses of
Rusalka in several scenes are smarmy but immediately provide an indicator of this extreme "family" dysfunction, as well
as a cogent
motivator for Rusalka wanting to escape to the human world.
On the other hand, the fine line between decent if provocative interpretation and outright Eurotrash can be
extremely fine, and a
couple of the staging choices here leave a bit to be desired. Kusej evidently invited the ire of European animal rights
activists when he
announced plans to actually have the dead carcass of a deer on stage for the Gamekeeper to skin and gut. Wiser
heads prevailed, but
even with the fake deer there, Kusej invites several of the actors both in this scene and later to smear themselves with
blood. It may be an
effective metaphor but it's kind of disgusting to see, especially within the context of the slain doe.
This is a dark and brooding interpretation of one of the unsung glories (no pun intended) of Czech opera, and it's
interesting to contrast Dvorak's musical evocation of water spirits with Wagner's Rhine Maidens. Dvorak's score is
perhaps surprisingly declamatory, less symmetrically balanced than one might expect from this composer, and one
which is given to some extremely expressive vocal lines that easily unveil the inner worlds of these tormented
characters. The singing and playing are both top notch, and while Opolais is remarkable in evincing a tormented,
awkward spirit trying to make her way in the human world (pay attention to her fumbling inability to walk once she's in
human apparel, including high heels), it's Groissböck's performance that remains the most visceral
in an overlal excellent ensemble. This isn't a typical fairy tale by any stretch, and whle also not quite the stuff of legend,
this is a remarkable production that manages to reinvent the original without slathering it unneeded "improvements".
Dvorak: Rusalka Blu-ray, Video Quality
Rusalka is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kultur and Unitel Classica with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1.
This is the first Unitel Classica release I've personally reviewed that has been released by Kultur; for years the label was
distributed by Naxos, and indeed all of the other releases featured on the trailers on this Blu-ray are distributed by Naxos.
(Evidently the first Kultur release of a Unitel Classica title was the recent
Berg: Lulu, which will be reviewed here soon.)
The good news is that Unitel Classica has once again provided a largely superior looking video presentation, something
that should allay those who might have been put off by some recent Kultur that featured somewhat problematic video. The
image here is quite sharp and well defined, especially in the copious close-ups, where fine detail pops quite admirably.
Shadow detail is very good, though at times a bit inconsistent. Colors are nicely saturated and rather interestingly some of
the textures of the piece—everything from the glistening smooth water that adorns the stage to the rough looking woven
wicker some of the furniture is made out of—provide some very nice visual contrast throughout the opera.
Dvorak: Rusalka Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
Rusalka is a dark and desperate piece that is even more disturbing than usual in this arresting, but at times
questionable, production in Munich. Most of this revisioning works amazingly well, with some smart updates that offer
these larger than life characters is rather squalid settings that make them almost like something out of a 1950s "kitchen
sink" drama (at least a sink would have water in it, so Rusalka would be right at home). But some of the other bits, like the
repeated use of blood smeared over people's hands and faces, are a bit much to take, and the finale, placed in an insane
asylum, might tip over into Grand Guignol a bit too much for the opera's own good. On the whole, though, the pluses far
outweigh the negatives with this release. This new Blu-ray offers great looking video and really excellent audio, and the
Making Of supplementary featurette is surprisingly interesting.
Recommended.
