Rusalka

Rusalka wants to break out of her world, which constricts her and does not understand her. In search of a place for herself and someone to whom she belongs, she leaves her strictly regimented living space against the will of Aquarius and with the less than philanthropic help of Ježibaba. Even at the risk of losing herself, she follows her longing for a free world in which everything seems possible: humanity, love, protection and security. But the man she meets there, whom she could love, does not understand her. She is speechless in this world, doesn't know what to say - and ultimately fails because of the conventions she doesn't know.


Antonín Dvořák set the contrasting worlds of the ghostly, flowing underwater realm and the distant human world to music with great scenic dedication in his “Lyrical Fairy Tale” in 1901. For “Rusalka”, director Vasily Barkhatov returns to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein after his inspiring production of Richard Wagner's “The Flying Dutchman”.