OPERA REVIEW : Romantic ‘Rusalka’ Returns to Open S.D. Season

Another opening, a lovely show.

To inaugurate the 30th anniversary season of the San Diego Opera, Ian D. Campbell, the general director, mustered a sentimental gesture. He brought back “Rusalka.”

Most American companies are just beginning to discover the romantic revelations of Dvorak’s tale of the water nymph who loves a mortal. Although first performed in Prague in 1901, the opera didn’t make it to the mighty Met until a couple of seasons ago. The belated San Francisco premiere won’t take place until November.

A simple yet sophisticated fable enriched with Bohemian charm, shimmering lyricism and Wagnerian opulence, “Rusalka” has enchanted audiences recently in Houston, Washington and Seattle. We know, now, that the opera offers more--much more--than the quasi-aquatic heroine’s ecstatic song to the moon.

Essentially, the discovery began right here, 20 years ago, when Tito Capobianco selected the mellow melodrama as his calling card at the Civic Theatre. There had been student and amateur productions in this country before that--including a pioneering effort by Walter Ducloux at USC in 1963. But the San Diego premiere represented the first full-scale professional staging in America.

Many things have changed in the intervening decades. Some of the changes actually represent improvements.

Capobianco directed the drama himself in 1975, using a sparse, modernist set by Santo Loquasto. The text was performed, sensibly, in English.

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San Diego now borrows more productions than it creates. This time, borrowing wisely, the management selected a reasonable facsimile of the lush, old-fashioned decors designed by Gunther Schneider-Siemssen, which have already brought sweet storybook naturalism to stages from Vienna to Houston to Seattle to New York, with San Francisco next on the schedule.

San Diego’s second “Rusalka” unfolds in a strange foreign tongue, which, we are assured, is the original Czech. Rusalka’s nocturnal ode begins “Mesicku na nebi hlubokem,” or something like that. It is nice, of course, to hear the verbal timbres and inflections intended by the composer. Still, it doesn’t make much sense to have an all-American cast reproduce foreign nonsense-syllables by rote for an all-American audience that must follow a distracting English translation on a screen far atop the stage.

Luckily, the supertitle problem cast the only serious shadow on a memorable performance Tuesday night. This “Rusalka” was intelligently staged by the unobtrusive Wolfgang Weber. It was conducted with rare authenticity and innate sympathy by Albert Rosen, who elicited remarkably sensitive responses from San Diego’s sometimes recalcitrant orchestra.

The stage was dominated, with vocal authority and expressive poignancy, by Renee Fleming in the title role. She caressed the line with infinite tenderness in introspective passages, rose with ringing fervor to the heroic climaxes (can there be a Sieglinde in this soprano’s future?), yet never lost tonal focus or dynamic control.

She conveyed the heroine’s sadness and longing with perfect simplicity, and uncovered subtle sonic distinctions between the otherworldly sprite and suffering mortal. Ultimately radiant and tragically serene, she proved herself a worthy successor to the definitive Rusalka of our time, Gabriela Benackova.

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Her extraordinary performance was effectively complemented by Mark S. Doss, whose rich basso-cantante ennobled the paternal warnings of Vodnik, the sepulchral Water Gnome. Unfortunately, his offstage lamentations were crassly distorted by microphone.

Neil Rosenshein brought much romantic ardor and considerable finesse to the duties of the temporarily callow Prince. He did encounter some strain in Act Two when the tessitura rose beyond Heldentenor comfort, but that problem besets all singers who attempt this daunting challenge (with the possible exception of Ben Heppner).

Carter Scott focused the witchy cynicism of Jezibaba with point that stopped safely short of caricature and, though a bit light-voiced, sang with proper urgency. Adrienne Dugger stalked the second-act staircase dutifully--firm if slightly underpowered in the thankless task of the Foreign Princess.

Judith Lovat’s celestial soprano led the exquisite trio of nymphs, whose ancestors must include Mozart’s Ladies as well as Wagner’s Rhinemaidens. She was appreciatively seconded and thirded by Manhua Zahn and Annette Daniels.

Conspicuously absent from the dramatis personae were the Gamekeeper and Kitchen Boy, whose colorful litle scene in the last act fell sadly by the lakeside once again. Anyone who wants to fill in that blank will have to travel to San Francisco in the fall.

* “Rusalka,” presented by the San Diego Opera at the Civic Theatre, 202 C St. Remaining performances Friday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. and Wednesday. at 7 p.m. Tickets $20-$70. (619) 232-7636.