Rusalka

Sung in Czech with English translations projected above the stage.
A new Minnesota Opera production.

Be careful what you wish for. This is The Little Mermaid without the Disney ending. Rusalka, a water nymph, bargains with the sea witch to become human so she can win the love of the Prince. But the deal is deadly. The composer who created the New World Symphony gave this poignant fairy tale his most lyrical music, creating beautiful sound-worlds for the sea spirits and the mortals. Rusalka features the return of Minnesota native Kelly Kaduce in the title role, with Brandon Jovanovich returning as the Prince.

*Join us in the second floor lobby one hour before curtain for Opera Insights - free, fun and informative pre-show discussion.  

**See Rusalka Costume Designs

**Listen to Award winning director Eric Simonson discuss Rusalka's set design 

Dates + Performances

 The Cast

Andrea Coleman,

Katherine Haugen,

Karin Wolverton 

 Wood nymphs, water sprites,

 guests at the castle, servants,

 hunters

Alison Bates (the Foreign Princess)

A native of Columbus, Indiana, soprano Alison Bates is enjoying her third year in The Minnesota Opera's Resident Artist Program. After joining the program in the fall of 2005, she appeared as Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Mary in the American premiere of Laurent Petitgirard's Joseph Merrick the Elephant Man. Ms. Bates returned to the Resident Artist Program in the 2006-2007 season, where she sang Albina in La donna del Lago, Giulietta in Les contes d'Hoffmann, Ellen in Lakmé and covered the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro.

Ms. Bates graduated summa cum laude from DePauw University in 2001 with majors in vocal music performance and biology. She earned her Master of Music degree in 2004 at the Indiana University School of Music, where she studied with renowned soprano Costanza Cuccaro. While a student at IU, Ms. Bates appeared with the Indiana University Opera Theater as Catherine in the collegiate premiere ofA View from the Bridge, Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare and Amy in the collegiate premiere of Little Women.

Also active in oratorio work, Ms. Bates has sung the soprano solos in Schubert's Mass in G, Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Beethoven's Mass in C  and Symphony No. 9, Rutter's Requiem and Handel's Messiah and Israel in Egypt.

In 2006, Ms. Bates was named a National Semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She was a member of the Chautauqua Opera Studio Artist Program in 2002 and 2004, where she sang the role of the Shepherd in Tosca and covered the role of Amy in Little Women. In the summer of 2006, she was selected for the Chautauqua Opera Apprentice Program, where she sang Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Gianetta in The Gondoliers and covered Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro.  

In the 2007-2008 season, Ms. Bates will be completing her tenure as a Minnesota Opera Resident Artist. She covers Elmira in The Fortunes of King Croesus and enjoys role debuts as Elvira in The Italian Girl in Algiers, Juliette in Romeo and Juliet and the Foreign Princess in Rusalka.

John David Boehr (Hunter)

Dorothy Byrne (Jezibaba)

During the troupe’s presentation, Dorothy Byrne, the older actress, who recalls past triumphs, has some showstopping humorous moments in voice and gesture.

       – Glimmerglass Opera – The Mines of Sulphur 2004

Mezzo-soprano Dorothy Byrne brings a full, rich tone with great agility and power, along with the skills of a consummate actress to each role she portrays. In 2007 she received a Grammy Award nomination for Glimmerglass Opera's recording of Bennett's The Mines of Sulphur and made her Houston Grand Opera debut as Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro .

Upcoming engagements include her international debut with The Wexford Festival as Leda in The Mines of Sulphur; Hawaii Opera as Gertrude in Roméo et Juliette and Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia; Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Susanna in The Ghosts of Versailles; The Minnesota Opera as Jezibaba in Rusalka; and Florida Grand Opera as Miss Bentson in Lakmé and Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro .

Ms. Byrne has appeared in numerous productions with Lyric Opera of Chicago including Mrs. McLean in Susannah, Mrs. Olsen in Street Scene, The Mayor's Wife in Jenufa, Gertrude in Roméo et Juliette and the Monitor in Suor Angelica.

Other significant United States appearances include Florida Grand Opera as Lydia in Anna Karenina; Boston Lyric Opera as Larina in Eugene Onegin, The Marquise in La fille du régiment and as Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus; Glimmerglass Opera as Mme. Follenvie in the world premiere of The Greater Good, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance and Clementine in Bluebeard; Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Gertrude in Hamlet, Venus and Dorilla in Arianna and Emilia in Otello; The Minnesota Opera as Cecilia March in Little Women; Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Katisha in The Mikado; Hawaii Opera Theatre as Nicklausse and Le voix de mère in Les contes d'Hoffmann, the Page in Salome, Fillipyevna in Eugene Onegin and Emilia in Otello; Des Moines Metro Opera as the Secretary in The Consul and Public Opinion in Orpheus in the Underworld; Kentucky Opera as Cecelia March in Little Women and Mrs. Ott in Susannah; and Chicago Opera Theater as Ma Moss in The Tender Land and Zita in Gianni Schicchi and Buoso's Ghost.

Oratorio performances have included Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Wheaton Conservatory of Music, Verdi’s Requiem with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, where she appeared in the world-premiere of Hanson’s Hiawatha .

* performs April 12, 15, 17, 19

Andrea Coleman (Dryad)

 Katherine Haugen (Dryad)

Mezzo-soprano Katherine Korba Haugen, a Twin Cities native, has sung with The Minnesota Opera since 2001. She has appeared in the role of the Peasant Girl in The Marriage of Figaro and has been in the chorus for 21 productions with the company, including the world premiere of The Grapes of Wrath and American premieres of The Handmaid’s Tale, Orazi e Curiazi and Joseph Merrick dit Elephant Man. In the 2007–2008 season, Ms. Haugen will appear as a dryad in Rusalka and with the chorus in Romeo and Juliet and The Fortunes of King Croesus.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin – River Falls (UWRF), Ms. Haugen holds bachelor’s degrees in music (vocal performance emphasis) and social studies (psychology emphasis). She has appeared in productions of Candide and Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as in scenes from Carmen (as Carmen) at UWRF and The Rape of Lucretia (as Lucretia) and Conrad Susa’s Black River (as Clara) as part of Nautilus Music-Theater’s Wesley Balk Opera/Music-Theater Institute.

Ms. Haugen works for Arts Midwest, a regional nonprofit arts service organization based in Minneapolis, where she assists in managing a major performing arts booking and education conference. Her responsibilities also include a performing arts granting program serving Arts Midwest’s nine member states, and she contributes to several national initiatives that Arts Midwest administers on behalf of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Christin-Marie Hill (Jezibaba)

Praised as a “powerful, warm-hued mezzo-soprano” by The New York Times and “majestic in voice and appearance” by the Boston Globe, Christin-Marie Hill is emerging as one of the most promising mezzo-soprano voices of her generation. She began her musical career as a jazz vocalist in Paris, France. In 1999, she began a transition into classical music and has since added a wide range of operatic roles to her repertoire, including Carmen, Dido and the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas, Maddelena (Rigoletto), the Witch (Hansel and Gretel ), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) and La Principessa (Suor Angelica).

An accomplished interpreter of both early and contemporary music, she performed the role of Stella in the United States stage premiere of Elliot Carter’s What Next under the direction of Maestro James Levine at the Tanglewood Festival. She returned to Tanglewood this summer and collaborated with composer William Bolcom on the Tanglewood premiere of his song cycle for mezzo and orchestra, A Whitman Tryptich .

Her upcoming engagements include her Boston Symphony debut in April 2008, singing the role of Anna in Berlioz’s Les Troyens under the direction of James Levine. She then returns to Tanglewood for another project with Maestro Levine, singing the role of Leokadja Begbick in Kurt Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.

In her operatic career, she has appeared with the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Pensacola Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and the Utah Festival Opera. In concert, she has performed with the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, Springfield Symphony, New River Valley Symphony, The Prairie Ensemble, Sinfonia di Camera, Concerto Urbano, University of Illinois Symphony, Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana and the Blacksburg Master Chorale of Virginia.

Her distinctions include fellowships in voice at the University of Illinois and University of Kansas, career grants from the Kaplan Foundation and Rislov Foundation, a grant from the 2005 Elardo International Opera Competition and second place at the 2005 Shreveport Opera Singer of the Year Competition. Ms. Hill holds bachelor’s degrees in French literature and sociology, and a master’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Illinois. This season, her first as a Resident Artist with The Minnesota Opera, she will perform the roles of Ulrica in A Masked Ball, Gertrude in Romeo and Juliet and Jezibaba in Rusalka.

** performs April 20

Brandon Jovanovich (the Prince)

Winner of the 2007 Richard Tucker Award, American tenor Brandon Jovanovich is recognized by the world’s leading opera companies for his passionate stage portrayals of leading roles in French, Italian, German, and Slavic opera. As Brian Kellow of Opera News noted, "Brandon Jovanovich seems to possess true star potential. He managed the role [of Don José] with a winning combination of lyricism and dramatic intensity.”

The 2005-2006 season saw Brandon Jovanovich’s return to New York City Opera as Pinkerton and to Dallas Opera singing his first Turridu in the new Stephen Lawless production of Cavalleria rusticana . Mr. Jovanovich’s debut with Austin Lyric Opera that season saw him singing his first Sergei in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Making his German debut, he portrayed Pinkerton in a new production of Madama Butterfly at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, and he rounded out the season in the title role in Werther with Opéra de Lille.

Mr. Jovanovich’s 2004-2005 season commenced with his critically acclaimed debut at the Teatro alla Scala in the title role of Les contes d’Hoffmann: “A revelation … perfect diction, healthy singing and elegance of line, timbre of a true tenor … a Phoenix” (Corriere della Sera ~ Paolo Isotta). He continued the season with his debut at De Vlaamse Opera as Don José in Calixto Bieto’s production of Carmen. He debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra in a New Year’s Eve Gala Concert. His return to the Opéra National de Bordeaux saw him singing his first Cavaradossi in Tosca, immediately followed by Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Aquitaine National Orchestra. Mr. Jovanovich's debut with Boston Lyric Opera saw him reprise his critically acclaimed role as Bill in Jonathan Dove's Flight. He concluded the season with his return to the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where he sang Robert Devereux in the new Colin Graham production of Britten's Gloriana to great critical acclaim.

An accomplished musician and actor, Mr. Jovanovich has had successes in repertoire both standard and contemporary. Some of these include: Pollione in Norma, Boconnion in Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Mines of Sulphur (CD available on Chandos), Macduff in Macbeth, Alfredo in La traviata, Prologue/Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, Narraboth in Salome, Baron Lummar in Strauss’s Intermezzo, Luigi in Il tabarro, Sam in Susannah, Jean Gaussin in Massenet’s Sapho (CD available on Opera Rara), Ladislov in Smetena’s Two Widows, the American premiere of Lowell Lieberman’s The Picture of Dorian Gray as Lord Geoffrey, the title role in the world premiere of Craig Bohmler’s The Tale of the Nutcracker, Don José in Peter Brook’s La tragédie de Carmen, Sam Kaplan in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, Bill in the American premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Paris in the Laurent Pelly production of La belle Hélène and Phillippe l’Entendu in Rohmberg’s The New Moon (CD available on Ghostlight Records).

Kelly Kaduce (Rusalka)

Kelly Kaduce is a soprano with a warm and rich voice, stunning beauty, and superb acting ability. For her creation of the title role in Anna Karenina, Opera News proclaimed her "an exceptional actress whose performance was as finely modulated dramatically as it was musically. She embodied Anna's shifting personas – warm mother, passionate lover, dying penitent, drug-addicted madwoman – with emotional and physical specificity, and her dark, focused sound was lusty and lyrical one moment, tender and floating the next." For her Boston Lyric Opera debut in the title role of Thaïs, Opera News observed, "Kaduce sings with bell-like purity and silvery sweetness, and she suspends her legato with an effortless, sensual spin. A born actress, Kaduce is also a masterful illuminator of text."

Kelly Kaduce's 2007-2008 season includes her debut with Opera Pacific as Mimì in La bohème, and her returns to Malmö Opera as Marguerite in Faust, to The Minnesota Opera in the title role of Rusalka and to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the title role of Madama Butterfly. She also sings the title role in Suor Angelica at Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile. In recital, she performs at St. Olaf College and (with baritone Lee Gregory) at Bates College. In 2008-2009, Ms. Kaduce will make her Kentucky Opera debut as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello.

Ms. Kaduce's 2006-2007 season was met with critical acclaim for her returns to Boston Lyric Opera to perform Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly and to The Minnesota Opera to sing Rosasharn in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath. Of her Cio-Cio-San, the Boston Globe effused, "this production succeeds on the strength of Kelly Kaduce's winning performance," while the New Yorker described her in The Grapes of Wrath as "warmly expressive as Rosasharn." Rave reviews continued after the world premiere of David Carlson's Anna Karenina , for both Florida Grand Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Musical America averred, "Kaduce made of Anna a really moving and touching portrait, delineating her decline into despair and addiction with an understated elegance and power, so that her death was not so much a shock as a final call to rest of a tortured soul." In the summer of 2007, Ms. Kaduce sang the roles of Princess and Puppet in Tan Dun's Tea in a re-engagement with Santa Fe Opera and also performed in recital with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Recent operatic highlights include her return to New York City Opera as Mimì in La bohème, a role she has also performed with Opera Grand Rapids, Florida Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Waco, The Minnesota Opera and Opera Delaware; Mimì in the Los Angeles production of Baz Luhrmann's La bohème; her return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the title role of Michael Berkeley's Jane Eyre; her first performances of the title role in Susannah with Orlando Opera; her return to Nashville Opera as Marguerite in Faust, which she has also performed with Florida Grand Opera and Austin Lyric Opera; Caroline in the world premiere of Margaret Garner with Michigan Opera Theatre, also performed with the Opera Company of Philadelphia; Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly with The Minnesota Opera; Micaëla in Carmen with Nashville Opera; and Birdie Hubbard in Regina at Bard's SummerScape Festival.

Other highlights include Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette with Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Florida Grand Opera; her first performances of the title role in Suor Angelica with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and her first performances of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Atlanta Opera. Ms. Kaduce made her Santa Fe Opera debut as the Chinese Actress and ZiZhen in the world premiere of Bright Sheng's Madame Mao. She made her New York City Opera debut as Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, which she also sang with Opera Colorado. For Glimmerglass Opera she created two roles in the trilogy Central Park .

Among Kelly Kaduce's concert credits are Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard, Berg's Seven Early Songs and Argento's Casa Guidi. She has also appeared with the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra as soloist in Beethoven's Egmont, and in Britten's War Requiem and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall.

Kelly Kaduce is a graduate of both St. Olaf College and Boston University. Ms. Kaduce was a winner of the 1999 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Robert Pomakov (Vodnik)

Canadian bass Robert Pomakov has already earned attention for his unique voice and musicianship in opera, concert and recital. Only 26 years old, he is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. During the current season, he sings his first performances as Fasolt in Das Rheingold at the Canadian Opera Company. These performances mark the inaugural operatic performances at the Four Seasons Center. He participated earlier in the year in concerts in this theater as well. He also makes his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as the First Nazarene in a new Francesca Zambello production of Salome conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. His debut at Bordeaux Opera is as Don Fernando in Fidelio, and he returns to the Canadian Opera as the Police Commissioner in a new production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. In concert, he sings Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Florida Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony (both conducted by Stefan Sanderling) and the Calgary Philharmonic. He also appears in concert at Roy Thomson Hall with other leading Canadian operatic artists.

In the 2007-2008 season, Robert Pomakov returns to the the Canadian Opera Company as Petrovič Gorjančikov in a new Dmitri Bertman production of Janáček's From the House of the Dead. He also sings Angelotti in Tosca with the Canadian Opera Company and sings a recital there. His Slavic season continues with his debut at The Minnesota Opera as Vodnik in a new production of Dvorak's Rusalka. After singing performances at the Lanaudiere Festival in a concert version of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, he will perform Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and Handel's Messiah under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero with the Pacific Symphony. He also makes his debut with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, DC in Rachmaninov's The Bells and the Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov. His European season is highlighted by his debut at the Teatro Real, Madrid as Nikitich in Boris conducted by Jesus Lopez-Cobos and opposite Samuel Ramey.

In the 2005-2006 season, Robert Pomakov made his Houston Grand Opera debut in the dual roles of Varlaam and Shalkalov in Boris Godunov opposite Samuel Ramey and conducted by Tugan Sokhiev. He repeated Varlaam for his debut at the Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels. Other European debuts included the Opéra de Montpellier as First Nazarene and at Opéra de Marseille as Don Fernando. Among other concert appearances, he will sang Elijah with the Winnipeg Symphony and appeared in concert and recital at Canada's Scotia Festival.

In earlier seasons, Robert Pomakov made his Washington Opera debut as Leporello in Don Giovanni in a new production conducted by Plácido Domingo to superb reviews. He continued his association with the Canadian Opera Company in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex both in Toronto and at the Edinburgh Festival. He will also sang Sam in Un ballo in maschera there. He debuted at the Opera Festival of New Jersey as Gremin in Yevgeny Onegin and the First Apprentice in Wozzeck conducted by David Agler. In concert he has performed Messiah with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, a concert of French music for the Canadian Broadcast Council, a concert of international Christmas music in Almonte, Canada and a recital tour of Eastern Canada. He made his Ravinia Festival debut in Beethoven's Choral Fantasy conducted by James Conlon and returned a few weeks later for the role of Virgil in Rachmaninov's Francesca da Rimini conducted by Eschenbach. He also appeared there under Eschenbach in the Berlioz French version of Der Freischütz. At the Lanaudiere Festival, he sang King René in a concert version of Tchaicovsky's Iolantha.

Robert Pomakov graduated from the world-renowned St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto in 1999. He made his professional concert debut in 1998 and his Canadian Opera Company debut in a concert with baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in 1999. Other notable performances have included the Roy Thomson Hall Millennium Opera Gala with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (released on CBC Records) as well as his Concertgebouw debut in August 2000 with the European Union Baroque Orchestra. He has performed with such organizations as L'Opera de Quebec, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Montreal Symphony, the Monnaie Opera Orchestra, the Brandywine Baroque, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the New Hamilton Philharmonic, the Opera Company of Philadelphia and the Elora Festival.

Robert Pomakov performed two recitals at Toronto's Glenn Gould Studio one of which was broadcast by the CBC. He sang the Verdi Requiem with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven's Missa solemnis with the Kitchner-Waterloo Symphony, an opera gala with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 with the COC and a European tour of Handel's Apollo e Dafne which has been issued on Naxos Records.

At the Curtis Insitute, he has performed Seneca in L'incoronazione di Poppea, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, the title role in Don Pasquale and Le nozze di Figaro and the Doctor in Vanessa.

Robert Pomakov has been a prizewinner in several of the world's premiere singing competitions: a finalist in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Belgium, second place at the Belvedere Competition in Vienna and third place in Plácido Domingo's Operalia. In September 2006, Mr. Pomakov was decorated with the Simeon the First Honorary Medal from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, and with a Diploma from the Minister of Culture for his achievements in opera's art and special merit to Bulgarian culture and its dissemination all over the world. Other prizes have included first prize in the 2000 Oratorio Society of New York's solo competition, an encouragement award in the 2000 George London Foundation Competition, an encouragement award from the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, the 1999 Victoria Scholars Grant, Second Prize in the 1998 Canadian Music Competition and First Prize in the 1997 Kiwanis Music Festival in Toronto.

Karin Wolverton (Dryad)

"...a young soprano to watch. She showed a lovely warm tone, easy agility and winning musicality. Her Act II duet with Maria, "A figlia incauta" was exquisitely sung." - Opera News, May 2005, vol. 69, no.11

Soprano Karin Wolverton was most recently seen as Micaëla in Carmen with Des Moines Metro Opera, where in previous seasons she has been seen in the roles of Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress, and Antonia in Les contes d' Hoffmann. Engagements for 2006-2007 included a return to The Minnesota Opera for Antonia in its Les contes d'Hoffmann, an appearance in The Grapes of Wrath with both The Minnesota Opera and Utah Opera and a soloist engagement with the Eugene Symphony in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. She has performed the role of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at The Minnesota Opera, where she dazzled audiences as Ines in Donizetti's rarely performed bel canto masterpiece Maria Padilla, and sang Micaëla in Carmen to a warm reception. In recent years she has appeared as Pamina in The Magic Flute, the Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, Praskowia in The Merry Widow, Clotilde in Norma, Moira in The Handmaid's Tale, Alisa in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and as the Celestial Voice in Verdi's Don Carlos. Ms. Wolverton was a featured soloist in the Minnesota Orchestra's performances of Dvorak's Te Deum and singing Mimì in excerpts from La bohème. Upcoming she sings the role of Mimì in La bohème with Pensacola Opera and sings one of the Dryads as well as covering the title role in Rusalka with The Minnesota Opera. Additional future engagements include a reprisal of her role in The Grapes of Wrath with both Pittsburgh Opera and Opera Pacific and Abigail in The Crucible with Orlando Opera.

Ms. Wolverton has spent two summers as an apprentice with the Des Moines Metro Opera, covering the role of Marguerite in Faust as well as participating in the Scenes Program. She recently graduated with a Master of Arts in Vocal Performance at the University of Minnesota, where she has performed several roles as part of its Opera Theatre: Madame Lidoine in Dialogue of the Carmelites, the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro and Nero in The Coronation of Poppea. Partial roles through the Opera Workshop include Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), the Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), Laetitia (The Old Maid and the Thief), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Agathe (Der Freischütz) and Micaëla (Carmen). Other past engagements include the Second Soprano in Park Square Theatre's production of Masterclass and the featured soloist for the University of Minnesota's Sesquicentennial Celebration.

Ms. Wolverton was invited to participate in Central City Opera's Young Artist Program in Colorado where she covered Giulietta in The Tales of Hoffmann and appeared in The Student Prince. In December 2004, she sang the role of the Mother in the Minnesota Orchestra's production of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Wendall K. Harrington (Projections Designer)

Wendall Harrington received the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and American Theatre Wing awards for her design of The Who's Tommy. Her Broadway credits include Grey Gardens, The Good Body, Vincent in Brixton, Amy's View, Putting It Together, The Capeman, Ragtime, John Leguizamo's Freak, Company, Racing Demon, Four Baboons Adoring The Sun, The Will Rogers Follies, The Heidi Chronicles, My One and Only and They're Playing Our Song. Opera credits include The Grapes of Wrath and Transatlantic for The Minnesota Opera, Nixon in China for Opera Theatre of St. Louis and A View from the Bridge at Metropolitan Opera; The Juniper Tree at ART; The Photographer at BAM; The Magic Flute in Florence; and Orfeo in Vienna. Ballet credits include The Nutcracker for San Francisco Ballet, Othello for ABT, Ballet mécanique and Deconstructing English for Doug Varone; and Anna Karenina for the Royal Danish Ballet. Off-Broadway and regional credits include The Investigation, Hapgood, As Thousands Cheer, Night and Her Stars, Merrily We Roll Along (three times) and the ill-fated Whistle Down the Wind. Concert: Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads), Old Friends (Simon and Garfunkel), No Apologies (Chris Rock) and John Fogerty's Déjà Vu Tour, as well as William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and Experience with VocalEssense. Ms. Harrington is the former design director of Esquire Magazine and created player introductions for the New York Knicks, Liberty and Rangers and has two fine daughters. She designed and directed the premiere of Snapshots with the Elements Quartet and Arjuna's Dilemma, a new opera based on the Bhagavad Gita. She teaches Projection Design at the Yale School of Drama.

Mathew Jancezwski (Choreographer)

Mathew Janczewski is a Chicago native who began his early dance training at DanceCenter North. At age 19, he moved to the Twin Cities and began his training at the University of Minnesota. There he performed in the works of Doug Varone, Bill T. Jones, Mark Morris, Bebe Miller, Merce Cunningham and many more. He received his BFA in Dance in 1994. Mathew has danced with a variety of Minnesota choreographers, including Beth Corning, Shawn McConneloug, Robin Stiehm and Cathy Young. He was a company member of Shapiro & Smith Dance and JAZZDANCE! By Danny Buraczeski for five years with both companies.
Since 1992, Mathew has choreographed more than 30 contemporary works. His continued studies of ballet, hip-hop, yoga, tai-chi and modern dance continue to influence his blend of movement. In 2005, Mathew joined forces with Theater Latté Da and choreographed an original dance theater work Bankrupt City Ballad to a live big band, with text by Kira Obolensky and directed by Peter Rothstein. Following Ugly at the Walker Art Center, Mathew will be choreographing for The Minnesota Opera's production of Rusalka in April 2008. ARENA is in the studio as well, remounting the 2001 show waterBRIDGE taking place at the Southern Theater May 8-10, 2008 and a show at the Southern in October with the String quartet, ETHEL.

Over the years Mathew has been recognized by the McKnight and Jerome Foundation, Land O' Lakes Foundation, Target Foundation, Faegre & Benson Foundation, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Foundation for Contemporary Performing Arts, receiving General Operating Support and Artists Fellowships to create and explore new works. Mathew received a 2005 Sage Award for "outstanding performance" for Solo Lounge. Mathew Janczewski is a recipient of a 2005 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Choreographers, administered by the Southern Theater and funded by the McKnight Foundation. In Fall 2006 ARENA celebrated its 10-year anniversary at the Southern Theater.

Several companies in the United States have performed Mathew's distinctive movement. Special projects and commissions have included choreography for the Repertory Project of Cleveland, St. Olaf College, St. Paul Conservatory for the Arts, Gustavus Adolphus College, Macalester College, Hamline University, State University of New York - Potsdam, State University of New York - Brockport, Carleton College, University of Minnesota, Perpich Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, and Zenon Dance Company and School.

Kärin Kopischke (Costume Designer)

Bill Murray (Assistant Director)

Bill Murray is currently making the transition from artist to administrator and joins The Minnesota Opera as a Resident Artist in Artistic Administration. His past experience includes work for Lucent Technologies' Software Products Group and the University of Minnesota's College of Education, where he was the lead on internet content and development for The Minnesota Paraprofessional Consortium. At The Minnesota Opera, his stage credits include Marullo in Rigoletto and Lillas Pastia in Carmen, as well as five seasons of chorister work. He teaches regularly at the University of Minnesota, where he also obtained his Master of Music Degree and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Music.

Erhard Rom (Set Designer)

Erhard Rom has designed over 100 productions nationally and two of his designs were featured in the 2007 Prague Quadrennial, the pre-eminent scenographic exhibition in the world. Some of his most recent projects include: Jane Eyre for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Volpone and L'étoile for Wolf Trap Opera and a highly acclaimed production of The Tales of Hoffmann, directed by Lillian Groag, for Virginia Opera this past fall.

His work includes numerous engagements with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Virginia Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Chautauqua Opera. His designs have been seen regularly at Syracuse Stage and Geva Theatre Center in upstate New York for the past twelve years. Other Theatre Companies he has worked for include: Indiana Repertory Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Interact Theatre and Woolly Mammoth Theatre. He has also designed for Opera Festival of New Jersey, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Kentucky Opera, Cleveland Opera, Curtis Institute of Music, San Francisco Opera Center, Manhattan School of Music, Oklahoma Mozart Festival, ABC Television, and bard Summerscape among others. He received the Tribute to Classical Arts award for Creative Achievement in Opera in 1999 and 2003 for work at the New Orleans Opera.

Future engagements include Alcina for Wolf Trap Opera and La bohème for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Mr. Rom received his MFA in Design from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is a member of USA Local 829.
 

Eric Simonson (Stage Director)

Writer and Director Eric Simonson last directed The Grapes of Wrath for The Minnesota Opera. Also recently, he completed the documentary film A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin, which was nominated for an International Documentary Association Award and won an Academy Award in 2006. He wrote and directed Carter's Way for Kansas City Rep, and Ahab's Tale for Milwaukee Rep. That production was selected as one of the top ten productions of the year by Time magazine. He also directed and co-wrote (with Jeffrey Hatcher) Work Song at Milwaukee Rep, a production which subsequently toured to Missouri Rep, Arizona Theatre Company and City Theatre in Pittsburgh. Mr. Simonson is a company member of Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, where he directed Mother Courage, Slaughterhouse-Five (adaptation also), Nomathemba (co-author also) and The Song of Jacob Zulu (Tony nomination, Perth Arts Festival).

Other credits include: Hamlet, The Last Hurrah (adaptation also) and Bang the Drum Slowly (adaptation also) at The Huntington Theatre; Othello at Court Theatre; Orazi e Curiazi, The Handmaid's Tale, La bohème, Bok Choy Variations and The Magic Flute at The Minnesota Opera; as well as work at The Kennedy Center, Crossroads Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, LA Theatre Works and Angels in America at Milwaukee Rep. Mr. Simonson's first film, a documentary called Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom, received an Academy Award nomination, an Emmy nomination,and the 2001 IDA Distinguished Achievement Award. Other film credits include Hamlet (co-directed with Campbell Scott) for Hallmark Entertainment and Topa Topa Bluffs, an independent feature. As an actor, Mr. Simonson appeared in the Chicago, London and Broadway productions of The Grapes of Wrath, and on television on Seinfeld, The Untouchables and The Ben Stiller Show. He is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award, the NCCJ Media Arts Award and the Princess Grace Statue for sustained achievement.

Mr. Simonson recently directed Korczak's Children for Children's Theatre Company. He is currently writing a new play called When Pride Still Mattered for Madison Rep and a pilot television series for HBO called Homeland.

Robert Wierzel (Lighting Designer)

Robert Wierzel has worked in Theatre, Dance, New Music, Museums and Opera, with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, on stages throughout the country and abroad. Productions with opera companies of Paris; Berlin; Tokyo; Toronto; Boston; San Diego; San Francisco; Houston; Washington; Seattle; Virginia; Chicago (including Lyric Opera and Chicago Opera Theatre); Glimmerglass and New York City Opera among others. Numerous collaborations with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance (Bessie awards) and Philip Glass including Hydrogen Jukebox (American Theatre Wing Award) and 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. Regional theater credits include Arena Stage; Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Shakespeare Theatre; Milwaukee Rep; Hartford Stage, Long Wharf; Goodman Theatre; The Guthrie; Mark Taper Forum and the Berkley Rep, among others. Additional credits include productions at Roundabout Theatre Company; New York Shakespeare Festival; the Signature Theatre; MCC Theatre; Mostly Mozart Festival and on Broadway (David Copperfield's debut Dreams and Nightmares). Mr. Wierzel received an Obie Award - Special Citation for his participation in Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Euridice, a work for music and dance, which was choreographed and directed by Doug Varone. Robert Wierzel holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and serves as a faculty member of the Design Department at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Robert Wood (Conductor)

Robert Wood joined The Minnesota Opera's artistic staff as Conductor-in-residence last season, where he conducted La donna del lago and Le nozze di Figaro as well as one performance of Lakmé. This season he leads productions of The Italian Girl in Algiers and Rusalka. In this position Mr. Wood also oversees the continued development of the chorus and orchestra, supervises the music staff and coaches principal and resident artists.

Mr. Wood was recently praised in the San Francisco Chronicle for his ‘sprightly, precise' interpretation of L'italiana in Algeri at the San Francisco Opera. He made his debut at the same house in 2004, leading performances of La traviata, and recently appeared at the Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco leading a concert with Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. Mo. Wood has also recently conducted L'italiana in Algeri for the Vancouver Opera.

Mr. Wood has spent two summers with the Wolf Trap Opera Company conducting Rossini's Le Comte Ory and The Magic Flute. He has also appeared as conductor for many productions with Opera San José including Tosca, Faust, Manon, Carmen, L'elisir d'amore, Rigoletto and La bohème. Other recent conducting engagements include H.M.S. Pinafore with the Indiana University Opera, a recording for ODC Dance in San Francisco of Jack Perla's On a Train Headed South and guest conductor with the San José Chamber Orchestra. Mo. Wood held the position of chorusmaster at the Santa Fe Opera from 2001 to 2004, where he received critical acclaim for the choral contribution to the world premiere of Bright Sheng Madame Mao, and the American premiere of Kaija Saariaho's L'amour de loin. Mr. Wood also served as chorusmaster for Opera Company of Philadelphia's production of Les pêcheurs de perles in 2004 and has appeared at Chicago Opera Theater and the Florida State Opera, where he conducted Gluck's Orfeo.

Mr. Wood was a 1998 Merola Opera Program and Western Opera Theater participant, and spent several years in Vienna studying voice and singing in the Arnold Schönberg Chor.

Among Mr. Wood's upcoming engagements include productions of La Cenerentola at New Jersey Opera, The Love for Three Oranges at Indiana University, The Abduction from the Seraglio at Hawaii Opera Theater and The Barber of Seville at The Minnesota Opera.

A scene from The Minnesota Opera’s 1988 production of Rusalka

A scene from The Minnesota Opera’s 1988 production of Rusalka

A scene from The Minnesota Opera’s 1988 production of Rusalka

Fantasy and folklore have always tweaked the operatic imagination and remain an integral part of the art form's dramaturgy to this day. Spawning out of the ennui of dilatory French aristocrats, fairy tales were realized on the musical stage as early as the 18th century, with André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry's Zémire et Azor (1771; based on Beauty and the Beast) and Nicholas Isouard's Cendrillon [1810; more famously to become Rossini's La Cenerentola (Cinderella; 1817)] all the way into the early 21st century, with the American premiere of Jonathan Dove's The Adventures of Pinocchio by The Minnesota Opera in 2009. Frenchman Charles Perrault was a master raconteur, but by the early 19th century, his flights of fancy faced some very stiff competition, albeit with a more sinister tone, where "happily ever after" often remains inconclusive. The German Romantics, most notably Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm and E.T.A. Hoffmann, began to mix superstition with fact, and soon witches, ghosts and wizards [as seen in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth (1847); Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel (1893); Richard Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer (1843) and Parsifal (1882); Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet (1868); Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann (1881); Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw (1954)], vampires [Nicolas Brazier's Les trois vampires (1820); Heinrich Marschner's Der Vampyr (1828); Peter Joseph von Lindpaintner's Der Vampyr (1828)] and even the devil began to make their presence known [among the countless examples include Louis Spohr's Faust (1816); Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz (1821); Daniel Auber's Robert le diable (1831); Charles Gounod's Faust (1859); Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele (1868); Ferruccio Busoni's Doktor Faust (1925)].

The creative mind of the Romantic period was obsessed with the cruel, violent and macabre side of nature and asserted the merits of imagination and peculiarity of phantasm. Though the traditional tales would survive in the repertoire [examples here include Weber's Oberon (1828); Marschner's Han Heiling (1833);Wagner's Die Feen (1883); Jules Massenet's Cendrillon (1899) and Griséldis (1901), Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's Le coq d'or (The Golden Cockerel; 1909), both Busoni and Giacomo Puccini's Turandot (1917 and 1926); William Shakespeare's fairy-based dramas A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest in several interpretations; Igor Stravinsky's Le rossignol (1914); Richard Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919), to name a few], now frightful and fantastic stories of lore were fair game. Symbolist literature followed suit, with poetry by Maurice Maeterlinck (to be set by Claude Debussy as Pélleas et Mélisande (1902) and Paul Dukas as Ariane et Barbe-Bleu (Ariane and Bluebeard; 1918) as well as hauntingly beautiful paintings by artists Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon (though they would revert to ancient Greek folklore, better known as "mythology," and oral traditions handed down many generations that would eventually comprise the Old Testament) and the English Pre-Raphaelites John William Waterhouse and Edward Burne-Jones (the Victorians had an especially curious interest in the supernatural and the occult).

Water mythology was of special interest, particularly in the struggle between the real and spiritual worlds. Every culture had its parasitic and life-draining, yet sexy and emasculating, femme fatales, a sorority of beautiful young women in league with some greater pernicious force - the Greek nymphs and sirens, the Scottish banshee, the German lorelei and Rheinnixen (immortalized by Jacques Offenbach and Richard Wagner), France's Celtic Mélusine and Eastern Europe's rusalki. Whether jilted lovers, victims of suicide, unbaptized souls or the unclean dead, all of these menacing incarnations seemed to have the same modus operandi - to lure unsuspecting victims into the woods (always a perilous locale) for the principal purpose of causing their death by drowning [in contract to their landbased cousins, the vilis, immortalized by Heinrich Heine and brought to life in Puccini's Le villi (1884) and Adolphe Adam's ballet Giselle (1841), who cause their ex-paramours to dance until they collapse dead from exhaustion - did I mention the forest was a scary place?]. The Slavic and Russian vodyanoi covered all water-borne creatures - one legend purported, that should a maiden drown, she became a rusalka and thereby was destined to reside in the waters where she perished. Others claim rusalki actually had been murdered by their lovers and sought eternal revenge. Much like the Greek sirens, the lorelei are Rhenish mermaids who sweetly sing on the edge of waterways, enticing sailors ever closer until they crash their boats on the rocks. Similarly, the Rheinnixen lure men into their watery embrace and ultimately to their victims' demise, while the tradition of Mélusine involves a nymph who marries a man who can't keep his promise and eventually discovers her secret identity, causing her to flee and never return.

Though the story of malevolent water nymphs would be set as a Singspiel in early 1798 as Das Donauweibchen (Women of the Danube) by Ferdinand Kauer (at Vienna's Theater in der Leopoldstadt, one of Magic Flute librettist Emanuel Schkineder's main rivals), the sprightly Undine, defined simply as a "water nymph," would soon capture the German psyche, most notably in a novel by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, first published in 1811 (both Edgar Allen Poe and Sir Walter Scott would become his admirers - Scott, in particular, loved to include frightful subplots in his writings). A slew of staged works followed, including those by Hoffmann (1816), Cesare Pugni (1844) and Albert Lortzing (1845). Traveling Danish author Hans Christian Andersen latched on to the craze and wrote Den lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid; 1836) upon Motte Fouqué's inspiration. Farther east, the Russians would also plunder these legends. Based on texts by Alexander Pushkin (Rusalka; 1832) and Nikolai Gogol [Mayskaya noch' (May Night; 1831)], Alexander Dargomïzhsky (Rusalka; 1856), Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (Undina; 1870) and Rimsky- Korsakov (Mayskaya noch'; 1880) composed operas on the subject. Undine/Ondine continued to fascinate artists well into the 20th century, giving impetus to a piano piece by Maurice Ravel (part of Gaspard de la nuit; 1908), a ballet by HansWerner Henze (1958) and a play by Jean Giraudoux (1939; to be set as an opera by Daniel Lesur in 1982).

So a definite trend had been in place by the time Antonín Dvorák came about to writing his penultimate opera. He was no stranger to the spectral world. Drawn from the folk ballads of Karel Jaromír Erben, the symphonic poems dating from this period carry eerily evocative titles such as The Noon Witch, The Water Goblin, The Wild Dove and The Golden Spinning Wheel, and detail ghastly acts of dismemberment and massacre. His most recent opera to date,Cert a Káca (The Devil and Kate; 1899), a loose adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew (whose female title character shares a common name with Shakespeare's spitfire leading lady) has his calamitous harpy spend some time with Lucifer down in hell. Dvorák's final opera Armida (1904) also involves magical forces at play [somewhat predating the fairy tale vogue, the subject was derived from Torquato Tasso's 16th-century epic poem Orlando furioso and worked into a libretto by Jean-Baptiste Lully-librettist Philippe Quinault; it would be set by numerous 18th-century opera seria composers, namely George Frideric Handel (as Rinaldo; 1711), Carl Heinrich Graun (1751), Tommaso Traetta (1761), Antonio Salieri (1771), ChristophWillibald Gluck (1777), Franz Joseph Haydn (1784), and later, by Rossini in 1817].

A young librettist yet to prove himself, Jaroslav Kvapil must have been delighted when Dvorák accepted his text for Rusalka after three other composers had turned him down. On its face, the narrative appears to be the classic by Andersen (albeit of a much darker vein) where the temporarily fishtailed heroine saves, falls in love with and then is abandoned by a nameless prince. Not quite Disney, Andersen's version incorporates some gruesome details à la Brothers Grimm - the mermaid's tongue is cut out as payment for her transformation; the conversion from webbing to legs is hardly painless; and the new young woman must endure the equivalent of "walking on knives so sharp your blood must flow." The price of returning to her former self is the Prince's blood, drawn after she plunges a dagger into his heart. Andersen's mermaid is an estranged outsider, vainly hoping for acceptance within civilized society, and her plight emphasizes the impossibility of a melding between the natural and the otherworldly - as a result, she opts for self-sacrifice rather than murder. Kvapil credits another menacing tale, Gerhart Hauptmann's Die versunkene Glocke (The Sunken Bell), which also employs a witch, a gnome and an ill-fated romance ending with the death of a male protagonist (treated operatically by Ottorino Respighi in 1927).

Motte Fouqué's work draws a closer parallel to Dvorák's opera, yet there are significant differences between the two renderings. Having lost their daughter when she was swept out to sea, an old fisherman and his wife accept the responsibility of a mysterious young girl (Undine) who unexpectedly shows up - damp - on their doorstep. She grows up to become a headstrong young temptress, accepting the affections of a brave knight, Huldbrand. He brings her back to court with the intention of marrying her. Undine befriends Bertalda, the supposed offspring of the duke and duchess, who was tentatively pursuing a love affair with Huldbrand before he left. Bertalda manages to ensnare her man, but not before being exposed - she is really of peasant stock, the longtime missing daughter of the fisherman. A malicious water sprite and a hermit priest add grotesque touches to the story as does the final scene - at the wedding ceremony, Undine's unearthly powers are revealed when she mysteriously appears, kisses Huldbrand to death and vanishes into the waters.

Kvapil draws freely from all these stories, adding depth to the witch Jezibaba (her character only slightly more pleasant than her Andersen counterpart) and improving the disposition of the water sprite, who becomes a wise and loving father to Rusalka and a solemn commentator on humanity's destructive nature. Keeping in line with an abstraction akin to the fairy tale, no one has a proper name (Rusalka, Vodnik and Jezibaba all being types of creatures in Czech folklore). The inclusion of the Turnspit and Gamekeeper (cut in this production) give comic relief, grounding the opera with rustic charm, and in traditional stagings, sharply distinguish the normal and fantastical dominions. The addition of the ballet in the party scene, while a requisite of Czech opera at the time, further stresses Rusalka's alienation from the mortal world.

Hugely popular in Czechoslovakia since the day of its premiere, Rusalka was slow to catch on elsewhere, waiting nine years before a foreign staging could take place in Vienna. Even today, it is infrequently produced in the United States, having appeared at only a handful of major companies over the past two decades. With its luscious orchestration, shimmering and heartfelt melodies, throughcomposed urgency, leitmotif character portrayals and harmony reminiscent of Wagner, the opera accentuates the lyricism of silence through its wistful title character. Rusalka's deathblow caress becomes as romantic as a kiss when she learns too late the tragic consequences of that classic adage - be careful for what you wish.