Premiere of opera Rusalka by Antonín DvořákOpera — 12. May 2025.
The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb announced the premiere of one of the most beautiful and emotional operas of the Slavic music repertoire – Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák that will have its opening night on Friday, May 9, 2025. The premiere of Rusalka is taking place exactly 99 years after its last Zagreb premiere.
In all of its beauty, after almost an entire century Rusalka, the most performed and popular Dvořák's opera is returning to our stage. The question of the leading protagonist, the water nymph, is the question raised by all artists and the spectators – is a dream worthy of the greatest sacrifice, explained the director of the Opera Željka Barišić Pulig.
The conductor will be maestro Srba Dinić and Caterina Panti Liberovici is the stage director. The opera ensemble includes Croatian opera soloists who also appear on international stages, which proves the high level and artistic power of our opera stage. This production of Rusalka brings a fresh perspective on the timeless music fairy-tale in a lavish musical interpretation and contemporary stage poetics. It is inspired by Slavic mythology, but the story of the water fairy nymph can also be found in the fairy tale Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. In general, the plot is similar to the one of Dvořák's opera, where it is enriched with a Slavic melancholic nuance along a lavish music score intertwined with deep emotions, symphonic richness and lyrical inspiration. It is the penultimate work of the Czech romantic and is one of his most significant and successful operas composed to the mythical libretto of Jaroslav Kvapil.
It has three acts and was composed in 1901. It abounds in musical jewels among which Rusalka's aria Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém (Song to the Moon) is one of the most beautiful arias in the entire opera repertoire.
Rusalka is scheduled for May 10, 12, 13, 15 and 16, 2025.
