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Guergana Damianova / OnP

Guergana Damianova / OnP

Opera

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Rusalka

Antonín Dvořák

Opéra Bastille

from 02 to 20 May 2026

from €10 to €95

3h35 with 2 intervals

Synopsis

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Born from the cold waters of a lake, the water sprite Rusalka aspires to become a woman out of love for the prince with whom she is smitten. The witch who agrees to help her warns that her transformation will come at a high price: not only will she have to sacrifice her voice, but failure will mean eternal damnation.

A lyric tale inspired in part by Andersen's The Little Mermaid, Antonín Dvořák's penultimate opera, first performed in Prague in 1901, boasts spellbinding music, with orchestration as sparkling as the silver moon shimmering in the waters.

Seamlessly slipping into this organic, poetic universe, Robert Carsen devises a staging of great visual inventiveness: using an interplay of symmetries and duplications, he evokes reflections in the water as much as the mirror of dreams, revealing the impasse of an unnatural transgression.  

Duration : 3h35 with 2 intervals

Language : Czech

Surtitle : French / English

Show acts and characters

CHARACTERS

Rusalka: A supernatural aquatic creature
The Water Goblin: Rusalka’s father
The Prince: A human loved by Rusalka
The Foreign Princess: Rusalka’s human rival
Ježibaba: A witch
Three nymphs: Rusalka’s sisters
The Forester, The Kitchen Boy: Servants at the royal castle

First part

Act 1
In a moonlit lake, the three sisters of Rusalka the water nymph make merry. Their father, the Water Goblin, arrives and starts to play with his daughters. Rusalka shares her distress with her father: she confides that she has fallen in love with a Prince who occasionally comes to bathe in the waters of the lake. Her passion is such that she yearns to leave the depths of the lake and take on human form so that she may live with him. Concerned for her happiness and conscious of the danger that such a love represents for his daughter, the Water Goblin tries to dissuade her. When she persists, he tells her that there is but one person who can help her: Ježibaba the witch.

The latter appears, agrees to help the young girl by transforming her, but warns her that her love will be difficult since, in order to enter the human world, Rusalka will have to give up the power of speech. Furthermore, if ever she is rejected by the one she loves, she will be cursed forever. Rusalka is convinced that the strength of her feelings will enable her to overcome such odds: she drinks the potion and is transformed. The Prince arrives. Charmed by her beauty, he asks Rusalka if she is a nymph or a real woman. Rusalka can do no more than stretch her arms towards him. The Prince leads her away…  

Second part

Act 2
At the Prince’s castle, preparations for the Prince’s marriage to Rusalka are underway. Two servants, the Forester and the Kitchen Boy, discuss the impending wedding. Both are frightened of the strange and mute woman, and they worry for the happiness of their master. The Prince, meanwhile, is still smitten with Rusalka but he is confused by her silent aloofness. When he exhorts her to love him with more passion, the Foreign Princess appears.

Easily able to charm the young Prince, she belittles Rusalka who is unable to defend herself. The Prince promptly falls in love with this Princess who speaks and acts like a normal human. As Rusalka realises that the Prince is forsaking her for the Foreign Princess, the Water Goblin enters the castle in search of his daughter…  

Third part

Act 3
Back at the bottom of the lake, Rusalka despairs at her situation: neither woman nor nymph, her sole mission now is to lead men to their deaths. Once again, she implores Ježibaba to help her. The latter suggests that she takes her revenge by killing the man who abandoned her. Horrified, Rusalka rejects her suggestion. The Forester and the Kitchen Boy come to ask Ježibaba to assist them: since Rusalka left, their master has fallen ill and is languishing. The Water Goblin suddenly appears and accuses the Prince of having betrayed Rusalka. Terrified, the two servants flee.

Still obsessed by Rusalka, the desperate Prince starts to search for her. Suddenly, she appears before him. Now able to speak, she tenderly reproaches him for having abandoned her. When the Prince asks her to kiss him, Rusalka warns him that to do so will cost him his life. She kisses him passionately. Clasped in Rusalka’s arms, the Prince dies in contented bliss…

Artists

Opera in three acts (1901)

Creative team

Cast

Orchestre et Chœurs de l’Opéra national de Paris
Coproduction Wiener Staatsoper, Vienne

Media

RUSALKA by Antonín Dvořák - TRAILER (english version)
RUSALKA by Antonín Dvořák - TRAILER (english version)
  • Draw-me Rusalka

    Draw-me Rusalka

    Listen the podcast

  • The suspended bed of Rusalka

    The suspended bed of Rusalka

    Read the article

Draw-me Rusalka

Listen the podcast

Understand the plot in 1 minute

1:23 min

Draw-me Rusalka

By Matthieu Pajot

Poetry and sensuality take pride of place in this production of Rusalka, created for the Paris Opera in 2001.

In taking up the well-known subject of the siren, Dvořák wrote a bewitching score that plunges the spectator into a mysterious and disturbing universe, magnificently represented in Robert Carsen’s production.

Reality and the supernatural, earth and water, humans and ethereal beings are juxtaposed in this almost sublimely dreamlike opera. However, the meeting between two worlds is never without consequences: if the dreamworld nymph Rusalka sacrifices her voice, the only too human Prince loses his life.

Rusalka

Opera

Rusalka

Antonín Dvořák

Opéra Bastille
from 29 Jan to 13 Feb 2019

Discover

© Elena Bauer / OnP

The suspended bed of Rusalka

Read the article

A production remembered

03 min

The suspended bed of Rusalka

By Cyril Pesenti

Have you ever dreamed of immersing yourself in the legend of the mermaid? Wait no longer, Rusalka is returning to the stage of the Opéra Bastille. Between reality and supernatural, Michael Levine’s sets magnificently embody the spellbinding music of Antonín Dvořák. Alain Duret, deputy director of the Bastille’s stage equipment department, reveals the secrets of a particularly magical component of the set: the suspended bed.

“At the beginning of the final act, when Rusalka is doomed to wander as a ghost after being betrayed by the prince, the witch Ježibaba appears on a mysterious suspended bed. She reveals to Rusalka the means to bring an end to her suffering: if she wants to save herself, she must kill the Prince.

In order not to reveal the presence of the suspended set piece until the very last moment, we had to come up with an ingenious mechanism. Everything (the bed, chairs, bedside tables, duvet cover, roses, lamps…) is bolted to a steel structure capable of supporting a significant payload. So as to retain a degree of lightness, the external trim of this metallic frame was made of wood and composite materials. Indeed, we mustn’t forget that this set piece is going to be moving: it advances progressively from the far reaches of the stage by way of a rolling system. With a view to suggesting the levitation of the fixed components, the entire frontal section of the structure is covered in black velvet. As a result, the entire set piece seems to blend completely into the dark and sombre atmosphere of the stage.    

À l’envers du décor, escalier permettant à la chanteuse de se placer.
À l’envers du décor, escalier permettant à la chanteuse de se placer. © Elena Bauer / OnP

The rear part of this great wall is organised so that a spiral staircase supported by a steel structure can be attached there. At the desired moment, with the help of a set technician, Ježibaba climbs the steps and positions herself in the box. The funny thing is, we have the impression that she is really lying in the bed, when in fact, she is really standing with her head propped against a pillow to simulate a lying position. When the aria is over, we help Ježibaba climb back down and we close the door to the box.

© Elena Bauer / OnP

We can then release the set’s locks and, with the help of two stagehands manually operate the wheel that makes the bed and the other components rotate. This is how, during her second appearance, revealed by the light escaping from the trap from which Ježibaba reappears, the bed is now turned horizontally!”

Rusalka

Opera

Rusalka

Antonín Dvořák

Opéra Bastille
from 29 Jan to 13 Feb 2019

Discover

Press

  • The Paris Opera is well advised to give a third performance of this extraordinary Rusalka, one of the director's most memorable productions.

    ResMusica, 2019

  • Like its submerged set, the Bastille ship is awash with emotion.

    Olyrix, 2019

  • Everything about Robert Carsen's staging and scenography is successful.

    Artistikrezo, 2015

  • At the Bastille, Robert Carsen's Rusalka is both intelligent and aesthetically pleasing.

    ResMusica, 2019

Access and services

Opéra Bastille

Place de la Bastille

75012 Paris

Public transport

Underground Bastille (lignes 1, 5 et 8), Gare de Lyon (RER)

Bus 29, 69, 76, 86, 87, 91, N01, N02, N11, N16

Calculate my route
Car park

Q-Park Opéra Bastille 34, rue de Lyon 75012 Paris

Book your parking spot
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In Jaroslav Kvapil’s libretto, as in The Little Mermaid, the character Rusalka is condemned to silence and unable to communicate with the prince. Behind this mutism preventing fulfilment of a loving relationship, perhaps lies a desire to withdraw from a world alien to the young girl in which she finds it impossible to assert herself and become a woman

BUY THE PROGRAM
  • Cloakrooms

    Free cloakrooms are at your disposal. The comprehensive list of prohibited items is available here.

  • Bars

    Reservation of drinks and light refreshments for the intervals is possible online up to 24 hours prior to your visit, or at the bars before each performance.

In both our venues, discounted tickets are sold at the box offices from 30 minutes before the show:

  • €35 tickets for under-28s, unemployed people (with documentary proof less than 3 months old) and senior citizens over 65 with non-taxable income (proof of tax exemption for the current year required)
  • €70 tickets for senior citizens over 65

Get samples of the operas and ballets at the Paris Opera gift shops: programmes, books, recordings, and also stationery, jewellery, shirts, homeware and honey from Paris Opera.

Opéra Bastille
  • Open 1h before performances and until performances end
  • Get in from within the theatre’s public areas
  • For more information: +33 1 40 01 17 82
Online

Opéra Bastille

Place de la Bastille

75012 Paris

Public transport

Underground Bastille (lignes 1, 5 et 8), Gare de Lyon (RER)

Bus 29, 69, 76, 86, 87, 91, N01, N02, N11, N16

Calculate my route
Car park

Q-Park Opéra Bastille 34, rue de Lyon 75012 Paris

Book your parking spot
super alt text
super alt text
super alt text
super alt text
super alt text

In Jaroslav Kvapil’s libretto, as in The Little Mermaid, the character Rusalka is condemned to silence and unable to communicate with the prince. Behind this mutism preventing fulfilment of a loving relationship, perhaps lies a desire to withdraw from a world alien to the young girl in which she finds it impossible to assert herself and become a woman

BUY THE PROGRAM
  • Cloakrooms

    Free cloakrooms are at your disposal. The comprehensive list of prohibited items is available here.

  • Bars

    Reservation of drinks and light refreshments for the intervals is possible online up to 24 hours prior to your visit, or at the bars before each performance.

In both our venues, discounted tickets are sold at the box offices from 30 minutes before the show:

  • €35 tickets for under-28s, unemployed people (with documentary proof less than 3 months old) and senior citizens over 65 with non-taxable income (proof of tax exemption for the current year required)
  • €70 tickets for senior citizens over 65

Get samples of the operas and ballets at the Paris Opera gift shops: programmes, books, recordings, and also stationery, jewellery, shirts, homeware and honey from Paris Opera.

Opéra Bastille
  • Open 1h before performances and until performances end
  • Get in from within the theatre’s public areas
  • For more information: +33 1 40 01 17 82
Online

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