Opera on 3 - Dvorak's Rusalka

Presented by Louise Fryer. In a performance given at 2009's Glyndebourne Festival, Jiri Belohlavek conducts a production of Rusalka, Dvorak's best-known opera. It's the first time in its history that the famous festival has staged this tale, loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, but translated into a Czech idiom. Rusalka, a water nymph, lives in a pool in a dark and brooding forest. She's doomed not only to lose her lover but to live forever as a will-o-the-wisp tempting other men to their deaths. This critically-praised production is directed by Melly Still, making her operatic debut, with Anna Maria Martinez as Rusalka and American tenor Brandon Jovanovich as the prince she falls in love with. Rusalka ...... Ana Maria Martinez (soprano) Prince ...... Brandon Jovanovich (tenor) Vodnik ...... Mischa Schelomianski (bass) Jezibaba ...... Larissa Diadkova (mezzo-soprano) First Wood Nymph ...... Natasha Jouhl (soprano) Second Wood Nymph ...... Barbara Senator (mezzo-soprano) Third Wood Nymph ...... Elodie Mechain (contralto) Hunter ...... John Mackenzie (tenor) Gamekeeper ...... Alasdair Elliott (tenor) Kitchen Girl ...... Diana Axentii (mezzo-soprano) Foreign Princess ...... Tatiana Pavlovskaya (soprano) London Philharmonic Orchestra The Glyndebourne Chorus Jiri Belohlavek (conductor).