Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

Now, I will admit that I've never heard another version of this opera, but I enjoyed this recording immensely. Even going out on a limb and disagreeing with the critics, I rather liked Zajick.

True, few of the songs stand on their own, but I never saw this as a problem. Opera needs to be taken as a whole. With Rusalka, the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. Find yourself a complete copy, and enjoy. This is one of those many occasions when a "selections from" disc is a horrible idea.

Having all the enthousiastic reviewers, Gramophone's award and various happy critics in mind I should not be writing this review. But I have something to say to all these enthousiastic people:

I fully aknowledge what this recording has done for Dvorak's masterpiece - but did you ever listen to Zdenek Chalabala's account on Suprahon with Zidek, Subrotova, Haken et al? That interpretation is much better shaped and proves that Chalabala was a better conductor than Mackerras. Fleming is surely great, but Subrtova is not one bit worse, in fact I think she's better. And Heppner is no match for Zidek.

I am not going to write anything bad about the present recording - not to cause disturbance. But maybe Mackerrras' recording was only so highly acclaimed because he discovered a hitherto unjustly neglected masterpiece. Listen to Chalabala and make your own judgement.

I bought, as I imagine most of the reviewers, based on the Grammophone recomendatiom. As most of the times they are correct.

The performance is incredible and Mrs. Fleming has the exact qualifications for the role.

I was in Prague and of course went to the Rudolfinum. After following in love with the city, and its music, the recording has the signature of that hall, something difficult to achieve, but they did it. The late Sir Georg Solti had it right in his autobiography (that I also encourage to read) Decca knows how to record opera.

Sir Charles Mackerras understands perfectly the plot and the orchestra plays with love.

Get it!

This recording, of Rusalka, is great. I heard othe versions of the moon song, but here fleming sings it extraorinary well. By listening this aria, sang by Fleming, it became one of my favorite ones. Heppner is great too, and Mackerras, gives a sensational tension to the orchestra. If you want to hear Rusalka, please hear this version. It's great.

...if one digs a little deeper than the facile and the popular, one will find a true 'diamond in the rough' on par with the best of puccini and mozart, in my humble opinion...

...mackerras' interpretation of dvorak is complex, rich, sensitive, melodic and moving...the thrust of this work is such as to make 'o silver moon' but a part of a greater whole...and if one wishes to see the union of beauty (vocally) and emotion in the form of fleming, then this is it...

...truly superb...five stars!...

In 1998 Fleming and Heppner were widely accalimed for this, the most vocally resplendent Rusalk ever recorded. As everyone else says, Ms. Fleming's radiant soprano is thrilling in the title role, and Heppner's heroic timbre is gilt-edged casting. Mackerrass is a Czech specialist from way back, and his conducing is strong and sympathetic. One might lament that we can't have native Czech performers on this level, but Decca recorded most of ts Janacek cycle, also under Mackerras, with non-native leads. I imagine that the Czech pronunciation here is much less than idiomatic, and that there's a good deal more earthiness in Dvorak's music, but those are quibbles. This amounts to one of the most ravishing opera recordings in years.

One Spotlight reviewer above makes idiotic comments about Mozart's operas being "about on a par" with his symphonies, about Mozart operas being neglected, and about Rusalka not being performed becasue the music is too difficult (compared to Wozzeck?). In reality Rusalka has been neglected in the first place because it's Czech, in the second because the libretto is a conventional fantasy-fairy tale that lacks psychological interest (the same problem afflicts Rimsky-Korsakov's operas), and third becasue Dvorak, like Tchaikovsky, didn't follow the familiar oepratic styles of Verdi, Rossini, Mozart, and Wagner.

Of those, Wagner comes closest, I supose, yet comparisons hardly matter. Dvorak wrote an assemblange of songs, marches, dramatic monologues, duets, and folk-inspired ensembles that are altogether beautiful without holding up as a coherent operatic whole--particularly at three and a half hours. Arias are supposed to advance either character or situation; here they are often just songs. Having said that, this is one nelgected oepra that sounds so delightful at home that one hardly misses the stage action, which in any event doesn't exactly rise to high drama.

Superb. The best opera recording of the year. The last CD is the real gold. The opera just makes you wanna cry. Fleming's dramatic dedication is admirable. I think she found an emotional connection to this role that will never leave her. Hawlata has become my new favorite bass. His voice along with his acting makes every track where he sings, enjoyable. The whole album is just magical and fairy-tale like. Dvořák wrote here and opera that will always be with me. I only wish there were more of his operas out there.

If I could give more than 5 stars, I would.