Choral Movements for The Rusalka mj315
‘The Rusalka’ is adapted from a story included in Heroes, Monsters and Otherworlds from Russian Mythology, Elizabeth Warner’s compilation of tales from Russian-language collections. The rusalka is one of several kinds of spirits that inhabit the elemental world and feature in a genre of stories called ‘bylichka’, which are supposed to tell of real people’s real encounters with the supernatural. Although rusalkas may be seen as a kind of nature spirit or mermaid, they’re also regarded as the spirits of drowned maidens. In some stories they’re sexy and alluring; in others their form is cadaverous and altogether less enticing. Antonín Dvořák’s opera Rusalka tells a more elaborate story about a rusalka, influenced by Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale ‘The Little Mermaid’.
The choral music reflects the natural world, both in songs about Ivan and the sounds of wind across the ice, and also the supernatural world of the rusalkas, heard through the undulating waves and wind.