Nightmarish 'Rusalka' opera divides conservative Salzburg

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

SALZBURG, Austria (AFP) — A nightmarishly dark new production of Antonin Dvorak's fairytale opera "Rusalka" by prize-winning directors Sergio Morabito and Jossi Wieler divided the audience at its first-ever staging Sunday at the Salzburg Festival.

Morabito and Wieler were loudly booed by the ultra-conservative audience when they took their bows at the end of the evening, while conductor, Austrian Franz Welser-Moest, and the entire cast received rapturous applause.

"Rusalka" is Dvorak's best-known and best-loved opera, above all in his Czech homeland, and the work has been performed almost continually in Prague since its premiere in 1901. In the West, however, it remains a relative rarity and has never been staged in Salzburg before.

Based on Hans Christian...