Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Prelude
2. Hou, hou, hou, stoji mesic nad vodou!
3. I pekne vitám, pekne vitám
4. Hastrmánku, tatícku!
5. Sem casto pricházi a v objetí mé stoupá
6. Mesícku na nebi hlubokém
7. Ta voda studí, studí! Jezibabo! Jezibabo!
8. Staletá moudrost tvá vsechno ví
9. Tvoje moudrost vsechno tusí
10. Cury mury fuk
11. Jel mladý lovec, jel a jel
12. Ustante v lovu, na hrad vratte se
13. Sestry, jedna scházi z nás!

Disc 2:

1. Járku, járku, klouce milé
2. U nás v lese strasí
3. Jiz týden dlís po boku
4. Zda na chvíli princ vzpomene si prec
5. Slavnostní hudba - balet
6. Celý svet nedá ti, nedá
7. Kvetiny bílé po ceste
8. Rusalko, znás mne, znás?
9. Vidís je, vidís? Jsou tu zas

Disc 3:

1. Necitelná vodní moci
2. Aj, aj? Uz jsi se navrátila?
3. Vyrvána zivotu v hlubokou samotu
4. Ze se bojís? Tresky, plesky
5. Mám, zlaté vlásky mám
6. Bílá moje lani! Bílá moje lani!
7. Milácku, znás mne, znás?
8. Líbej mne, líbej, mír mi prej

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58647 in Music
• Released on: 1998-10-20
• Number of discs: 3

Amazon.com essential recording
Though Czech opera has often had questionable export value due to linguistic barriers, this first truly international recording of Dvorák's most viable opera--inspired by Wagner's love of mythology and Verdi's melodic drama--suggests that non-Czech artists can be more than just credible. As a water sprite who becomes human for love of a prince, Renée Fleming gives her best recorded performance so far with a dramatic heat and theatrical dimension (plus her customary vocal luster) that her Czech predecessors haven't always mustered. Ben Heppner is a robust-voiced prince, though this one- dimensional role doesn't inspire any special affinity from him. Dolora Zajick is a vivid, vocally commanding witch. The one substantial disappointment is Franz Hawiata as the leathery-voiced water goblin. Conductor Sir Charles Mackerras is less interested in creating surface excitement than in bringing out subtleties that help compensate for the composer's occasional lack of melodic precision, though the big moments are by no means slighted. --David Patrick Stearns

USA Today
Fleming brings a touching vulnerability to the role of the water sprite who longs to be human and, unlike in recent recordings, keeps her sumptuous sound from overwhelming the words.

Customer Reviews

FABULOUS!!!!
Dvorak took a wretchedly bad libretto and transformed it into the beautiful opera Rusalka. His talent as a composer overshadows the poetaster Jaroslav Kvapil. Strangely Wagnerian at times, it contains much of the type of material in Dvorak's earlier tone poems. The music is emotional, rich and very expressive. Rusalka's aria to the moon affects me with more newtons of force than gravity itself can exert. Good performers. Good quality. Good music. If you are a Dvorak fan, get it. You'll love it. If you are not a Dvorak fan, get it anyway. You will become one.

A twentieth century masterpiece
I just reviewed Renee Fleming's new Bel Canto album and it got me thinking about her Rusalka. I have loved this opera for years, and in London we have been relatively priveleged to have not only ENO's fabled 1983 production (much revived and also videoed) but, more recently, a pair of concerts at Covent Garden.

I was present for one of these which featured Fleming and Mackerras and also Hawlata from this recording. Much feted when it was first released, I can scarcely imagine a better case being made for this unjustly neglected masterpiece. It is a treasure trove of beautiful music, if a long winded one. Rusalka's theme and her Song to the Moon may be the most recognisable, but Dvorak's genius produces so much more. The Wood nymphs' act 3 interlude, the Polonaise and subsequent scene where the Water Goblin's plaints are woven into the wedding chorus, and the highly charged exchange for Rusalka and Jezibaba at the beginning of act 3 - let alone the lovely aria that precedes it - these are all absolutely first class.

Noone knows Czech opera better than Mackerras, and he brings his usual incisiveness to this score, finding the edgy string tone required as Rusalka discovers the bitter taste of growing up. He indulges, but never wallows, in the big romantic melodies and builds the long final act to a great climax. The orchestra plays like a dream.

Fleming, apparently part Czech of extraction, appears to take to the language very well (a Czech speaker would know better than me). The title role is a big, big sing and she shirks none of the task, bringing her familiar dynamic range and sensitivity. she rides the climaxes powerfully - and there are some big ones, especially towards the end - and conveys an aching sense of loss in the last act lament. Absolutely stunning and, I'm pleased to report, a fair representation of her performance in the flesh.

The supporting cast has less to do, though the high lying role of the prince has crippled a fair few tenors I have heard. Heppner is heroic, forceful and romantic, and I can't imagine a better interpreter for this part today. Ditto Dolora Zajick, who has the wry humour and the chilling glint to make the character of the witch come gloriously to life. Hawlata sounds careworn but pleasingly resonant as the Water Goblin and Urbanova, in the challenging cameo of the Foreign Princess, makes her presence felt with a dangerous cutting edge to the tone (she is also a very striking presence on stage - more so than I'd expected).

The lesser roles, taken by local singers, are unexceptionable. I cannot recommend this set strongly enough!

A good, yet underappreciated, opera
Now, I will admit that I've never heard another version of this opera, but I enjoyed this recording immensely. Even going out on a limb and disagreeing with the critics, I rather liked Zajick.

True, few of the songs stand on their own, but I never saw this as a problem. Opera needs to be taken as a whole. With Rusalka, the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. Find yourself a complete copy, and enjoy. This is one of those many occasions when a "selections from" disc is a horrible idea.