Rusalka

Rusalka wants to break free! She finds the world she lives in far too confining. Despite all warnings, she dares to venture into the unknown and must pay a high price for it. She loses the ability to make herself understood and cannot find her footing in this unfamiliar world. There is no turning back without profound consequences. In this fairy tale, interpreted as a parable, Dvořák uses rich symphonic sounds to bring the contrasting realms into conflict, and Rusalka’s attempt to unite the two worlds fails.
Vasily Barkhatov, who was recently celebrated for his productions of *Norma* at the Theater an der Wien and *Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk* at the season opening of La Scala in Milan, takes up the allegoricalof the story and portrays Rusalka as a young woman who sets out from the hermetically sealed world of an Orthodox monastery into a world that is only seemingly more open and passionate—with consequences that are irreversible for her.