A. Dvorak opera "Mermaid": content, video, interesting facts, history

A. Dvorak opera "Mermaid"

In the 21st century opera by Antonín Dvořák "Mermaid"is experiencing a truly rebirth. She became a frequent visitor not only at the festival stage, but also in the constant playbill of the world's leading theaters. And the most popular sopranos of our days without fail have the entire title role (certainly in Czech) then at least her concert version in the form of a marvelous aria about a month in the distant skies.

Summary of the opera Dvorak "Mermaid" and a lot of interesting facts about this work, read on our page.

Summary of "Mermaids"

The action takes place at a fabulous time in a fabulous place.

In the more often forests of the nymph dance by the lake, teasing and flirting with the Waterman. Only Mermaid unhappy. She would like to have a human appearance in order to win the love of the Prince, whom she had recently seen on the beach. Mist warns her about the danger of such desires. Mermaid appeals for help to Ezhibaba, she is ready to fulfill her request, but Mermaid must agree that in the world of people she will become dumb. Can a lover give up a chance? When the Prince again hunts on the lake, he meets a charming dumb girl who is taken away to his castle.

The servants are suspicious of the Prince’s strange bride. He is in love with a beautiful and mysterious girl, but also begins to feel anxiety next to her. The guest arrives at the wedding, the Overseas Princess. She takes possession of the attention of the Prince. Mermaid, shocked by the betrayal of the groom, returns to his father. But the overseas princess is not happy with the easy victory - she despises the traitor who has deceived her own bride. The prince realizes that he lost the only love.

The mermaid becomes a wandering spirit that lures people to death in the dark waters of the lake. The prince comes looking for a meeting. He kisses her, despite what he knows - this will be the last moment of his life. All the victims are in vain, but the Mermaid thanks the Prince for giving her the opportunity to experience love. The human soul bestowed upon it flies toward God, and it itself returns to the depths of the lake.

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Interesting Facts

• The success of "Mermaids" so inspired Dvorakthat he literally the next day demanded a new libretto from Yaroslav Kvapil, certainly with a luxurious role for Maturova. The playwright could not offer him anything. The new opera by maestro Armida was released only three years later and became a real disappointment for the adoring Rusalka public.
• In the Czech Republic, the Mermaid is performed one and a half times more often than the absolute leader of the world opera. "Traviata" Verdi.

• Preparation for the staging of one of the most lyrical operas of the world took place in conditions of internal conflict in the National Theater with the change of musical leadership. The excitement and the appointment of a new chief conductor, Karel Kovářovica, did not soothe the work of the theater for several weeks was paralyzed by a strike. Kovářovic did not lose his head - he disbanded the old one and assembled a new orchestra. The striking artists of the choir, seeing such decisive methods, preferred to leave the barricades and return with the world.
• It would seem that all misadventures are over, one and a half hours before the premiere ... Suddenly, a letter from Karel Burian, the performer of the Prince’s party, is brought to the theater. The tenor brings his sincere apologies for not being able to be on stage this evening. Burian was known not only for his magnificent vocals, but also his passion for a cheerful lifestyle - that day, being in the company of friends, he simply forgot that he needed to keep fit for an evening performance. Fortunately, the theater was well aware of this peculiarity of it and sent the score back to work in advance, Bohumil Ptak. Nevertheless, Ptak was greatly surprised to see a delegation from the theater led by Dvorak himself on the threshold of his apartment just an hour before the curtain was raised. None of them was embarrassed by the fact that Bohumil did not take part in the last rehearsals and had a very vague idea of ​​the director's concept - it was necessary to save the premiere! Ptak not only coped with his difficult task, but also sang the party so brilliantly that it became one of the main victors of the evening.

The best numbers from the opera "Mermaid"

"Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém ..." ("My month, in the far skies ...") - Mermaid aria (listen)

"The whole world will not replace you" - Water's aria

The history of the creation and productions of "Mermaids"

The Danish island of Bornholm, with its picturesque villages, large mossy boulders and fishing boats swaying on the waves of the cool sea, seems to be the dwelling place for heroes of ancient myths and legends. In 1899, the Czech poet Jaroslav Kvapil fell under his charm. It was there, in the homeland of Andersen, that was inspired by the story of the Mermaid. The theme completely corresponded to the spirit of the time - everything mystical was fashionable and in demand in the era of decadence. Despite this, he returned to Prague and offered the composers a libretto he had just written, he faced rejections - neither Oscar Nebdal, nor Joseph Bohuslav Förster, nor Joseph Suk accepted the work. Fortunately, the libretto fell into the hands of the director of the Prague National Theater, Frantisek Schubert, and through him - to Antonina Dvoraku. The composer was imbued with impressionistic lyrics of poems and rather quickly - from April to November 1900 - wrote the opera.

The premiere was given on March 31, 1901 at the Prague National Theater, with Ruzhena Maturova, the famous soprano, the star of the last Dvorak operas, starring in the title role. The maestro, being an experienced composer, assumed that the new work would win sympathy, similar to his previous work "Devil and Kacha". But even he could not foresee such a stunning success. "Mermaid" made him the most popular composer in the Czech Republic, and then the most popular Czech in the world. For the first five years, the opera was given only in Prague almost eight hundred times!

Three months after the premiere, the composer wrote Gustav Mahlerwho certainly wanted to see the "Mermaid" in Vienna. His desire was reinforced by the generous fee of the author, the urgently begun translation of the text into German, the luxurious distribution, the brilliant names of the best soloists. All this is quite consistent with the great possibilities of the Vienna Opera. Dvorzhak had only dreamed that his art would overstep the borders of the Czech Republic ... However, for unknown reasons, he did not sign an agreement allowing him to carry out his plans. The composer died three years later, in 1904, without seeing his brainchild on the foreign stage.

Nevertheless, the fame of "Mermaids" diverged in Europe as circles on water - first in the nearby opera houses in Ljubljana, Vienna, Zagreb, and then in theaters in Spain and Germany. Under the title "Big Love", the opera was first presented in Russian at the Leningrad Kirov Theater in 1959, at the same time London got acquainted with "Mermaid". In the US, opera was staged only in 1975.

In 2009, two musical giants, Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky, showed their versions of the opera in St. Petersburg. In March 2019 the premiere of "Mermaids" is expected at the Bolshoi Theater.

Musical features

The researchers call the Mermaid both a romantic and a Wagnerian opera, because its music is built on leitmotifs, has a strong symphonic component and a noticeable role of the orchestra. The composer used amazing effects to transmit the splashing of the waves, the noise of the night forest and even moonlight. The musical descriptions of the two worlds - the human and the mystical - are fundamentally different. The carefree melodies of the forest nymphs are far from the emotional conversations of the Mermaid with the Waterman, the lyrical tenderness, the transparency of the themes of the main character are opposed to the bright passion of the Overseas princess. The impossibility of combining the two worlds, laid down in the plot, has been repeatedly reinforced by the score.

At the behest of the librettist, the story would have ended in the death of an unfaithful lover, but Dvorak needed an enlightened finale, a catharsis. Many endings of the composer’s serious and even tragic works end with hopeful notes. "Mermaid" is no exception.

"Mermaid" on video and in movies

Both of the most famous opera recordings are from the Metropolitan Opera (New York):

• Staging Otto Schenk, renewed in 2014 with René Flemming (Mermaid) and Peter Bechaloy (Prince).
• Staged Mary Zimmerman 2017 with Christina Opolays and Brandon Jovanovic.

The melodies from "Mermaids" are used in movie soundtracks:

• Belcanto 2018
• "Experiment" Office ", 2016
• "Hunter", 2011
• "Bicentennial Man", 1999

Fantastic success "Mermaids" Antonina Dvorak - Another proof of the infinity of art. The plot, woven from Slavic myths, music based on folk motifs, inspiration received from the native land, carry in them a powerful force of genuine emotions, understandable to people speaking any language and living in any century.