About the work
Rusalka is an opera in four acts by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, composed between 1848 and 1855 after Alexander Pushkin's unfinished verse drama of the same name. Dargomyzhsky wrote the libretto himself and, as later in The Stone Guest, pursued a continuous "melodic recitative" closely following the melody of speech. The premiere on 4 May 1856 at the Theatre-Circus in St Petersburg was received coolly by the aristocratic audience; only a new production at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1865 brought the work recognition.
Plot
The miller's daughter Natasha is seduced by a prince and abandoned for a socially suitable marriage. In despair she throws herself into the Dnieper and becomes the ruler of the rusalki, the water spirits. Years later the guilt-ridden prince returns to the river; Natasha's father, driven mad with grief, and the rusalki finally pull him down into the depths.
Cultural significance
Alongside The Stone Guest, Rusalka is one of the works with which Dargomyzhsky gave Russian speech-song its own musical form, and it became a point of reference for the composers of "The Mighty Five". The subject, likewise drawn from Pushkin, should not be confused with Antonín Dvořák's later opera Rusalka (1901), which is based on different material.