RUSALKA – OPER

In the organizer's words:

An opera by Jaroslav Kvapil (libretto) and Antonín Dvorák (music) Staged by Dominik Frank as part of the habilitation project "Nudity in music theater"

The opera is a version of the old myth of the mermaid who desperately wants to become human. In his version of the story, Kvapil opts for a coming-of-age story with an absolute "unhappy ending". His Rusalka is a longing water maiden whose greatest wish is to marry a human man in the human world. To achieve this, she is prepared to exchange her voice for human legs with the witch Jezibaba.

The production attempts to bring the psychoanalytical and sexual subtexts of the work to the surface with the help of explicitly used nudity and to confront them with today's feminist discourses (body image(s), gender image(s), power structures in the patriarchal system).

The opera was staged as part of Dr. Dominik Frank's habilitation project "Nacktheit im Musiktheater". The project examines historical and current discourses on physicality. The focus is on nudity as a phenomenon in the genres of opera, operetta, musical and dance theater. Analogous to Kvapil's free approach to the material and libretto, Antonin Dvorak's music also becomes material in the new interpretation by Ljubow Grams, which is reinterpreted by a small cast of five musicians between classical, punk and metal.

Cast: Rusalka: Giulia Fuchs | musical direction / piano: Ljubow Grams guitar | bass: Jakob Greithanner | saxophone / tenor horn: Natascha Juchert | trombone / flute / clarinet: Andreas Porsch Artistic and scientific direction: Dominik Frank | video and stage: Valerie Kiendl Co-production / supported by: Theater REGIEALSFAKTOR, University of Bayreuth, Kulturbunt Neuperlach e.V., V.f.b.K. e.V