Bolshoi Theatre: Rusalka Tickets | Event Dates & Schedule | GoComGo.com

Rusalka Tickets

Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Russia
Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Moscow, Russia
Duration: 3h 40min with 2 intervals
Acts: 3
Intervals: 2
Sung in: Czech

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast
Performers
Choose the date to see the peformers
Overview

The Bolshoi had never staged Dvořák’s operas before. Only in the beginning of XXI century the name of the acknowledged composer has appeared on the theatre’s posters. We begin our acquaintance with his most popular piece — opera Rusalka. It’s wonderful in its own way: although the Bolshoi and Rusalka have been waiting for each other nearly a hundred and twenty years, but now they are bound together with the strict guidance of the most promising opera directors – Timofei Kulyabin.

Timofei Kulyabin:
Maybe I’m partial towards Rusalka, but I think that’s good. First, there is a lot of beauty in this music, I mean, the adequacy between the plot and the music. This is a very convincing score, which doesn’t simply entertain you with Dvořák’s beautiful melodies, but also makes you believe in the emotions of the characters on stage. And they are obsessed with romantic, naïve motivations: Rusalka wants to have an eternal soul, to escape from her mysterious world to the world of humans… I am especially fascinated by that romantic-idealistic world, because I live in a very different one, my reality is very pragmatic.

Of course, it is a challenge to tell a contemporary story (and my stagings are always about our contemporaries) about quite fairy-tale characters: a Water Spirit, Jezibaba, forest nymphs, water nymphs, etc. And they all should turn to be moderns in my staging. I must say that I am not the first one: over the past 30 years, David Pountney, Robert Carsen, Martin Kušej, Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito, Stefan Herheim put Rusalka in unusual circumstances. The plot of the opera almost always provokes reflections on social conflicts: poor/rich, invaders/ oppressed, title nation/migrants and so on; or an analogy with the boundaries between consciousness/subconscious, social norms/secret desires, dreams/reality. It was interesting for me to work on a solution which would maintain the magical nature and the urgency of social drama.

Besides, there are many questions about how the main characters are written. The Water Sprite is the key character in this opera! However, except one beautiful but static aria in the second act, he sings only one line: ‘Poor, miserable Rusalka! Woe, woe!’ But each time he says that in the most crucial moments. Obvious, that the Water Sprite is the key character of the opera, though painted with only one colour. And it was very important to develop his line convincingly, to make him equal with Rusalka: while rehearsals I realized that this is not a story about Rusalka and the Prince, but the story about Rusalka and her father.


The next question is about Rusalka herself. From the first to the last word in this opera the main heroine is doomed. Despite the fantastically beautiful music and all the hardships: she goes through the accusation of her fellows, the transformation, the betrayal, the curse, the final redemption, and the acquisition of the soul. She is always suffering: her father doesn’t understand her, the Prince doesn’t love her in a proper way and eventually breaks up with her, and then she's suffering because of her curse. She is a victim of circumstance, lives under constant stress and that makes her very static. I wanted Rusalka to be always different, I wanted her character to change drastically in each act. As a result, we have three very different acts. And they differ not only in scenery, different realities, or acting – Rusalka herself is very different in each act.

Rusalka is the second production directed by Timofei Kulyabin at the Bolshoi Theatre. The first one was Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti, which formed the great production team: they are set designer Oleg Golovko, costume designer Galya Solodovnikova, opera dramaturge Ilya Kukharenko. Now they gather again for breathing life into Rusalka. The conductor of the production is Ainārs Rubiķis (who took up his position as Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin at the start of the 2018/19 season).

History
Premiere of this production: 31 March 1901, Prague

Rusalka is an opera by Antonín Dvořák. The Czech libretto was written by the poet Jaroslav Kvapil (1868–1950) based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová. A rusalka is a water sprite from Slavic mythology, usually inhabiting a lake or river. Rusalka is one of the most successful Czech operas and represents a cornerstone of the repertoire of Czech opera houses.

Synopsis

Act I

Wood nymphs merrily dance and sing along by the lake. Rusalka sits forlornly on the shore. When Rusalka’s father, the Water Sprite, asks what the matter is, she replies that she has fallen in love with a human, who comes often to the lake. Now she wants to become human herself and live on land to be with him. The Water Sprite warns her that humans are evil and full of sin. Rusalka insists, claiming they are full of love and have an eternal soul. The Water Sprite says she will have to get help from the witch Ježibaba. Rusalka calls on the moon to tell the Prince of her love. Ježibaba agrees to turn Rusalka into a human – but warns her that if she doesn’t find love she will be damned and the man she loves will die. Also, by becoming mortal, she will lose her power of speech. Convinced that her feelings for the Prince can overcome all spells, Rusalka agrees. The transformation is complete.
The Prince appears with a hunting party and sees the beautiful maiden by the lake. Even though she won’t speak to him, he is captivated by her beauty and leads her away to his castle.


Act II

The palace servants gossip about the approaching wedding of the Prince and his strange new ride, whose name nobody knows. However, they refer to the old Háta living in the castle, who believes that this wedding will never take place. The Prince wonders why Rusalka is so cold toward him but remains determined to win her. A young lady, invited to the wedding by the old Háta, mocks Rusalka’s silence and reproaches the Prince for ignoring his guests.
Guests are gathering for the wedding and getting ready to celebrate. Rusalka is restless, convinced that the Prince no longer loves her. Rusalka’s father secretly appears in the castle and she begs him for help. The Prince is more and more fascinated by his guest and, irritated by the bride’s meek embraces, pushes her away. Rusalka’s father curses her treacherous groom. The Prince’s guest is frightened, she leaves the Prince and tells him to follow his bride into hell.


Act III

Betrayed and cursed Rusalka has returned to the lakeside forest and grieves for her fate. Ježibaba says that there is only one way Rusalka can be saved: she must kill the Prince. Rusalka refuses. She will not take away the life of her only love.
Her sisters reproach Rusalka for betraying and reject her as well.
The servants, who have been sent to the forest by old Háta, say that the Prince has been bewitched by a strange girl he was going to marry. They ask Ježibaba to save him. Enraged, the Water Sprite banishes them away, saying that it was the Prince who truly betrayed Rusalka.
The wood nymphs enter, singing and dancing, flirting with the Water Sprite, but when he explains to them what has happened to Rusalka, they fall silent and disappear.
The Prince, desperate and half crazy with remorse, emerges from the forest, looking for Rusalka and calling out for her to return to him. She appears from the water, reproaching him for his infidelity, and explains that now a kiss from her would kill him. Accepting his destiny, he asks her to kiss him to give him peace. She does, and he dies in her arms. Rusalka prays for his soul and disappears into the water.

Act 1

A meadow by the edge of a lake

Three wood-sprites tease the Water-Gnome, ruler of the lake. Rusalka, the Water-Nymph, tells her father she has fallen in love with a human Prince who comes to hunt around the lake, and she wants to become human to embrace him. He tells her it is a bad idea, but nonetheless steers her to a witch, Ježibaba, for assistance. Rusalka sings her "Song to the Moon", asking it to tell the Prince of her love. Ježibaba tells Rusalka that, if she becomes human, she will lose the power of speech and immortality; moreover, if she does not find love with the Prince, he will die and she will be eternally damned. Rusalka agrees to the terms and drinks a potion. The Prince, hunting a white doe, finds Rusalka, embraces her, and leads her away, as her father and sisters lament.

Act 2

The garden of the Prince's castle

A Gamekeeper and his nephew, the Kitchen-Boy, note that the Prince is to be married to a mute and nameless bride. They suspect witchcraft and doubt it will last, as the Prince is already lavishing attentions on a Foreign Princess who is a wedding guest. The Foreign Princess, jealous, curses the couple. The prince rejects Rusalka. Rusalka then goes back to the lake with her father the Water Gnome. Though she has now won the Prince's affections, the Foreign Princess is disgusted by the Prince's fickleness and betrayal and she scorns him, telling him to follow his rejected bride to Hell.

Act 3

A meadow by the edge of a lake

Rusalka asks Ježibaba for a solution to her woes and is told she can save herself if she kills the Prince with the dagger she is given. Rusalka rejects this, throwing the dagger into the lake. Rusalka becomes a bludička, a spirit of death living in the depths of the lake, emerging only to lure humans to their deaths. The Gamekeeper and the Kitchen Boy consult Ježibaba about the Prince, who, they say, has been betrayed by Rusalka. The Water-Goblin says that it was actually the Prince that betrayed Rusalka. The wood-sprites mourn Rusalka's plight. The Prince, searching for his white doe, comes to the lake, senses Rusalka, and calls for her. He asks her to kiss him, even knowing her kiss means death and damnation. They kiss and he dies; and the Water-Goblin comments that "All sacrifices are futile." Rusalka thanks the Prince for letting her experience human love, commends his soul to God, and returns to her place in the depths of the lake as a demon of death.

Venue Info

Bolshoi Theatre - Moscow
Location   Teatralnaya Square 1

The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and opera performances. Before the October Revolution it was a part of the Imperial Theatres of the Russian Empire along with Maly Theatre (Small Theatre) in Moscow and a few theatres in Saint Petersburg (Hermitage Theatre, Bolshoi (Kamenny) Theatre, later Mariinsky Theatre and others).

The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world. It is by far the world's biggest ballet company, with more than 200 dancers. The theatre is the parent company of The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, a world-famous leading school of ballet. It has a branch at the Bolshoi Theater School in Joinville, Brazil.

The main building of the theatre, rebuilt and renovated several times during its history, is a landmark of Moscow and Russia (its iconic neoclassical façade is depicted on the Russian 100-ruble banknote). On 28 October 2011, the Bolshoi re-opened after an extensive six-year renovation. The official cost of the renovation is 21 billion rubles ($688 million). However, other Russian authorities and other people connected to it claimed much more public money was spent. The renovation included restoring acoustics to the original quality (which had been lost during the Soviet Era), as well as restoring the original Imperial decor of the Bolshoi.

The company was founded on 28 March [O.S. 17 March] 1776, when Catherine II granted Prince Peter Ouroussoff a licence to organise theatrical performances, balls and other forms of entertainment. Ouroussoff set up the theatre in collaboration with English tightrope walker Michael Maddox. Initially, it held performances in a private home, but it acquired the Petrovka Theatre and on 30 December 1780, it began producing plays and operas, thus establishing what would become the Bolshoi Theatre. Fire destroyed the Petrovka Theatre on 8 October 1805, and the New Arbat Imperial Theatre replaced it on 13 April 1808, however it also succumbed to fire during the French invasion of Moscow in 1812.

The first instance of the theatre was built between 1821 and 1824, designed and supervised to completion by architect Joseph Bové based upon an initial competition-winning design created by Petersburg-based Russian architect Andrei Mikhailov that was deemed too costly to complete. Bové also concurrently designed the nearby Maly Theatre and the surrounding Theater Square, The new building opened on 18 January 1825 as the Bolshoi Petrovsky Theatre with a performance of Fernando Sor's ballet, Cendrillon. Initially, it presented only Russian works, but foreign composers entered the repertoire around 1840.

Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Moscow, Russia
Duration: 3h 40min with 2 intervals
Acts: 3
Intervals: 2
Sung in: Czech

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

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