Rusalka Is Feb. 25, 2017, Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast

Summary: The Feb. 25, 2017, Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee broadcast is Rusalka, a lyric fairy tale by Czech composer Antonín Leopold Dvořák.

Dvořák's Rusalka airs as the Feb. 25, 2017, Saturday matinee broadcast during the 2016-2017 Met Opera season: Kristine Opolais @KristineOpolais, via Twitter Feb. 13, 2017

Rusalka, a lyric fairy tale by Czech composer Antonín Leopold Dvořák (Sept. 8, 1841-May 1, 1904), is the Feb. 25, 2017, Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee broadcast.

Czech librettist, playwright and poet Jaroslav Kvapil (Sept. 25, 1868-Jan. 10, 1950) completed the Czech libretto by 1899. Influences upon Kavpil’s libretto include Czech fairy tales and folk legends collected by Karel Jaromír Erben (Nov. 7, 1811-Nov. 21, 1870) and Božena Němcová (Feb. 4, 1820-Jan. 21, 1862).

The world premiere of Rusalka happened March 31, 1901. The venue was Národní Divadlo (“National Theatre”), considered the alma mater of Czech opera. Národní Divadlo is dramatically sited in Prague on the eastern banks of the Vltava River, southeast of the panorama of historic, ninth-century Prague Castle (Pražský hrad).

A fairy tale setting of unspecified place and time enhances Rusalka’s other-worldly theme of interactions between a human and a water nymph. Known as rusalka (plural: rusalky) in Slavic folklore and mythology, they are female sprites who inhabit lakes or rivers.

Love of a Prince whom Rusalka, daughter of a lake’s ruler, the Water Goblin, has seen hunting nearby propels the opera’s dramatic arc. Rusalka expresses her desire to transform into a human by way of the opera’s most famous aria, Píseň o měsíčku (“Song to the Moon”).

The Saturday matinee broadcast of Rusalka begins at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (6 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time). The estimated run time for the performance is about 3 hours 40 minutes.

The performance, sung in the original Czech, comprises three acts and two intermissions. Act I is timed for 57 minutes. A 30-minute intermission succeeds Act I.

Act II is timed for 46 minutes. A 30-minute intermission follows Act II.

Act III is timed for 57 minutes. The opera ends with Act III’s final notes.

Sir Mark Philip Elder conducts all of the Metropolitan Opera’s performances of Rusalka. His birthplace is Hexham, Northumberland, North East England. His role as conductor of Rusalka marks his debut at the Metropolitan Opera.

Kristine Opolais appears in the title role of Rusalka. She was born in Riga, Latvia. The Latvian operatic soprano debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2013 as Magda in La Rondine. This season Kristine Opolais also appears in the title role of Manon Lescaut and as Mimi in La Bohème. Both operas were composed by one of Kristine Opolais’ favorite opera composers, Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (Dec. 22, 1858-Nov. 29, 1924).

In an interview airing during intermission of the Metropolitan Opera’s Jan. 7 Live in HD broadcast of Nabucco, Kristine Opolais explains her passions for Puccini’s heroines as well as for the role of Rusalka.

“Of course, Puccini, I am in love with this composer. But Dvořák, if I say Puccini is in my blood, Dvořák is in my soul,” Kristine tells her interviewer, Rusalka castmate Eric Owens. “So I really feel in a very intense and a very deep way the role.”

Katarina Dalayman appears as the Foreign Princess. Her birthplace is Stockholm, southeastern Sweden. The Swedish operatic soprano debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1999 as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde.

Jamie Barton appears as Ježibaba. She was born in Rome, Floyd County, northwestern Georgia. The American mezzo-soprano debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2009 as the Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte (“The Magic Flute”) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756-Dec. 5, 1791). This season Jamie Barton also performs as Fenena in Nabucco by Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Oct. 10, 1813-Jan. 27, 1901).

Brandon Jovanovich appears as the Prince. His birthplace is Billings, Yellowstone County, south central Montana. The American operatic tenor debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2010 as Don José in Carmen by Georges Bizet (Oct. 25, 1838-June 3, 1875).

Eric Owens appears as the Water Spirit. He was born in Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania. The American operatic bass-baritone debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2008 as General Groves in Doctor Atomic by contemporary American composer John Coolidge Adams (born Feb. 15, 1947). This season Eric Owens also performs as Jaufré Rudel in L’Amour de Loin (“Love From Afar”) by contemporary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (born Oct. 14, 1952) and as the Voice of Neptune in Idomeneo by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The visual element is the only unavoidably missing piece in the Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee broadcasts. Listeners of Rusalka’s expressive music rely upon their own imaginations.

Attendees of live performances enjoy the added, visual treat of staging by Production Director Mary Zimmerman. Imaginative costumes and sets are designed by Mara Blumenfeld and Daniel Ostling, respectively.

Rusalka claims honored status as the only one of Antonín Leopold Dvořák’s 10 operas to achieve international renown. Noted Czech music scholar Michael B. Beckerman suggests indications of a projected, yet never composed, 11th opera. In New Worlds of Dvořák: Searching in America for the Composer's Inner Life (2003), Beckerman notes that, during the composer’s stay from 1892 to 1895 in the United States, Dvořák envisioned an opera themed around North America’s Native American hero, Hiawatha.

Operabase, an online database, places Antonín Dvořák at number 24 in a ranking of 1,281 most popular composers for the five seasons from 2011/2012 to 2015/16. Rusalka places at 34 in the list of 2,658 most popular operas.

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2016 Repertory Report gives performance statistics through Oct. 31. Rusalka holds place 118, with 329 performances, for the period from first Met performance, Nov. 11, 1993, to last performance, Feb. 15, 2014. The Metropolitan Opera’s 2016-2017 season falls outside the report’s parameters.

The takeaway for Rusalka as the Feb. 25, 2017, Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee broadcast is the lyric fairy tale’s alluring music and theme.

The 2016-2017 Met Opera season debuts American opera and theater director Mary Zimmerman's new staging of Dvořák's Rusalka: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook Jan. 30, 2017

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Dvořák's Rusalka airs as the Feb. 25, 2017, Saturday matinee broadcast during the 2016-2017 Met Opera season: Kristine Opolais @KristineOpolais, via Twitter tweet of Feb. 13, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/KristineOpolais/status/831280385233416196

The 2016-2017 Met Opera season debuts American opera and theater director Mary Zimmerman's new staging of Dvořák's Rusalka: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook Jan. 30, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10158271799750533/

For further information:

“Antonín Dvořák: List of Operas.” Opera Folio.
Available @ http://www.operafolio.com/list_of_operas.asp?n=Antonin_Dvorak

“Antonín Dvořák Rusalka.” The Metropolitan Opera > On Stage 2016-17.”
Available @ http://www.metopera.org/Season/2016-17-Season/rusalka-dvorak-tickets/

CzechEmbassyDC @CzechEmbassyDC. “@MetOpera premieres new production of Dvořák‘s Rusalka w/ Kristine Opolais in starring role, Feb. 2-Mar. 2.” Twitter. Jan. 30, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/CzechEmbassyDC/status/826159869266952193

"Composers: Composers Ranked by the Number of Performances of Their Operas Over the Five Seasons 2011/2012 to 2015/16." Operabase > Opera Statistics.
Available @ http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en

Erbena, Karla Jaromír. Kytice z Pověstí Národních. Praze, Čechy: J. Pospíšl, 1953.
Available @ http://eod.vkol.cz/419792/

Kristine Opolais @KristineOpolais. “Ready for Rusalka #4 at @MetOpera!” Twitter. Feb. 13, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/KristineOpolais/status/831280385233416196

Metropolitan Opera. "Coming Soon: Rusalka." YouTube. Jan. 9, 2017.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TibttR5yKqs

Metropolitan Opera. "Mara Blumenfeld and Elissa Iberti on Rusalka Costumes." YouTube. Jan. 23, 2017.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuNmW-Dx7cM

Metropolitan Opera. “Mary Zimmerman on Her New Production of Rusalka.” YouTube. Feb. 17, 2016.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5NzhRO-mO0

Metropolitan Opera. “Rusalka: Trailer.” YouTube. Feb. 3, 2017.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MMstqMT3kc

The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "'I want to activate the story so it feels we’re moving through space and time.' -- Mary Zimmerman for The New York Times on her new production of Dvořák's Rusalka. Opens Feb 2: bit.ly/2i6wScu Photo by Mary Zimmerman." Facebook. Jan. 30, 2017.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10158271799750533/

“Performances Statistics Through October 31, 2016.” MetOpera Database > The Metropolitan Opera Archives > Repertory Report.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/Database%20Opera%20Statistics.xml