Dvorák - Rusalka / Fleming · Heppner · Zajick · Hawlata · Urbanová · Czech Phil · Sir Charles Mackerras

Antonín Dvorák (Artist), Charles Mackerras (Artist), Renée Fleming (Artist), Ben Heppner (Artist), Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Artist), Kühn Mixed Choir (Artist), Franz Hawlata (Artist), Eva Urbanová (Artist), Zdena Kloubová Dolora Zajick (Artist), Ivan Kusnjer (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 20, 1998)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B00000DBUP
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,384 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #3 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Fleming, Renée
  • #9 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Featured Performers, A-Z > C to G
  • #30 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Operettas

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Though Czech opera has often had questionable export value due to linguistic barriers, this first truly international recording of Dvorák's most viable opera--inspired by Wagner's love of mythology and Verdi's melodic drama--suggests that non-Czech artists can be more than just credible. As a water sprite who becomes human for love of a prince, Renée Fleming gives her best recorded performance so far with a dramatic heat and theatrical dimension (plus her customary vocal luster) that her Czech predecessors haven't always mustered. Ben Heppner is a robust-voiced prince, though this one- dimensional role doesn't inspire any special affinity from him. Dolora Zajick is a vivid, vocally commanding witch. The one substantial disappointment is Franz Hawiata as the leathery-voiced water goblin. Conductor Sir Charles Mackerras is less interested in creating surface excitement than in bringing out subtleties that help compensate for the composer's occasional lack of melodic precision, though the big moments are by no means slighted. --David Patrick Stearns

USA Today

Fleming brings a touching vulnerability to the role of the water sprite who longs to be human and, unlike in recent recordings, keeps her sumptuous sound from overwhelming the words.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A twentieth century masterpiece, October 12, 2003

By 

Ed Beveridge (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dvorák - Rusalka / Fleming · Heppner · Zajick · Hawlata · Urbanová · Czech Phil · Sir Charles Mackerras (Audio CD)

I just reviewed Renee Fleming's new Bel Canto album and it got me thinking about her Rusalka. I have loved this opera for years, and in London we have been relatively priveleged to have not only ENO's fabled 1983 production (much revived and also videoed) but, more recently, a pair of concerts at Covent Garden.

I was present for one of these which featured Fleming and Mackerras and also Hawlata from this recording. Much feted when it was first released, I can scarcely imagine a better case being made for this unjustly neglected masterpiece. It is a treasure trove of beautiful music, if a long winded one. Rusalka's theme and her Song to the Moon may be the most recognisable, but Dvorak's genius produces so much more. The Wood nymphs' act 3 interlude, the Polonaise and subsequent scene where the Water Goblin's plaints are woven into the wedding chorus, and the highly charged exchange for Rusalka and Jezibaba at the beginning of act 3 - let alone the lovely aria that precedes it - these are all absolutely first class.

Noone knows Czech opera better than Mackerras, and he brings his usual incisiveness to this score, finding the edgy string tone required as Rusalka discovers the bitter taste of growing up. He indulges, but never wallows, in the big romantic melodies and builds the long final act to a great climax. The orchestra plays like a dream.

Fleming, apparently part Czech of extraction, appears to take to the language very well (a Czech speaker would know better than me). The title role is a big, big sing and she shirks none of the task, bringing her familiar dynamic range and sensitivity. she rides the climaxes powerfully - and there are some big ones, especially towards the end - and conveys an aching sense of loss in the last act lament. Absolutely stunning and, I'm pleased to report, a fair representation of her performance in the flesh.

The supporting cast has less to do, though the high lying role of the prince has crippled a fair few tenors I have heard. Heppner is heroic, forceful and romantic, and I can't imagine a better interpreter for this part today. Ditto Dolora Zajick, who has the wry humour and the chilling glint to make the character of the witch come gloriously to life. Hawlata sounds careworn but pleasingly resonant as the Water Goblin and Urbanova, in the challenging cameo of the Foreign Princess, makes her presence felt with a dangerous cutting edge to the tone (she is also a very striking presence on stage - more so than I'd expected).

The lesser roles, taken by local singers, are unexceptionable. I cannot recommend this set strongly enough!

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FABULOUS!!!!, May 20, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dvorák - Rusalka / Fleming · Heppner · Zajick · Hawlata · Urbanová · Czech Phil · Sir Charles Mackerras (Audio CD)

Dvorak took a wretchedly bad libretto and transformed it into the beautiful opera Rusalka. His talent as a composer overshadows the poetaster Jaroslav Kvapil. Strangely Wagnerian at times, it contains much of the type of material in Dvorak's earlier tone poems. The music is emotional, rich and very expressive. Rusalka's aria to the moon affects me with more newtons of force than gravity itself can exert. Good performers. Good quality. Good music. If you are a Dvorak fan, get it. You'll love it. If you are not a Dvorak fan, get it anyway. You will become one.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Get the Chalabala - Subrtova Version, October 6, 2005

By 

Dvorak Fan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dvorák - Rusalka / Fleming · Heppner · Zajick · Hawlata · Urbanová · Czech Phil · Sir Charles Mackerras (Audio CD)

I have listened to both this version and the Chalabala version, and heard Fleming live. Fleming's voice is stronger than Subrtova's, but Subrtova sings with greater lustre and passion and comes across as a better Rusalka. The Chalabala version is more dramatic. Also, Fleming takes some liberties with "Mesicku nad nebi hlubokem" that I don't think are exactly appropriate, and her pronunciation is obviously not nearly as good as Subrtova's; in fact I think she trips up on some words rather awkwardly.

Zidek and Haken are also much stronger than Heppner and Hawlatha.

The orchestra in the Chalabala version may not be as reputable as the Czech Philharmonic, but they do a superb job.

And please look beyond "Song to the Moon" - there are so many other wonderful parts - the dryads in the first and third acts, Rusalka's dialogues with the Vodnik and Jezibaba (Staleta moudrost tva), the Polonaise, Kvetiny bile po ceste in the second act, Mladosti sve pozbavena in the third act, and of course the wonderful finale ending with the immortal Buh te pomiluj.