OPERA REVIEW : A Great Romance Gets Great Treatment

Dvorak’s “Rusalka,” which opened triumphantly at the War Memorial Opera House on Sunday afternoon, isn’t really a new production. It’s just new to the city by the bay.

This unabashedly romantic account of the fatal love of a mermaid for a mortal reflects the lavish affection and conservative sensibility of Gunther Schneider-Siemssen. He designed lovely, glimmering, realistic sets in conjunction with director Otto Schenk for the Munich Opera in 1981. The production moved--lock, stock and fireflies--to Vienna in 1987.

Subsequent variations, most of them lacking Schenk’s personal involvement, have enriched the repertories of numerous American companies. Seattle came first, commissioning the domestic copy currently borrowed by San Francisco and drafting the designer himself as director. Houston, the Met and San Diego soon followed with reasonable facsimiles of their own.

San Francisco drafted a somewhat uneven cast, dominated, thank goodness, by the exquisite Renee Fleming as the titular nymph. The company omitted Schenk’s name in the credits and enlisted Laurie Feldman, a useful factotum, to supervise the preordained entrances and exits, not to mention a few cutesy-pie interpolations.

Schneider-Siemssen’s poetic sets were subjected to prosaic lighting (mostly dimming) by Joan Arhelger. Dietmar Solt’s hand-me-down costumes didn’t always flatter the figures they happened to drape.

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In context, however, none of the problems seemed terribly serious. There may have been vagaries on the stage, but there was magic in the pit. There probably was more magic, in fact, than one could have encountered in any previous “Rusalka” mustered in America. The source was easy to isolate: Charles Mackerras.

Here, at last, was a conductor who knows the idiom, loves the inherent tradition, and savors the rolling lyricism and primitive drama in equal measure. Here was an intellect that respects the expressive niceties of the text, even in a language most of the audience cannot understand. Here was a musician who encourages the orchestra to play with precision that never precludes warmth, a technician who listens for the inner voices and toys elegantly with the shimmering textures. And here, at last, was an artist who understands the frailties of the human throat.

Born in Schenectady, N.Y., raised in Australia, trained in Prague and professionally centered in London, Mackerras may be the world’s leading champion and exponent of Janacek in particular and Czechoslovakian music in general. Having just celebrated his 70th birthday, he conducts “Rusalka” with the enlightened care of an expert who has devoted a lifetime to refining its grateful challenges.

The truth of the matter, however, is more delightful. Until Sunday, he had never conducted the opera at all.

It took “Rusalka” 94 years to reach San Francisco. With Mackerras wielding the baton so authoritatively, one can almost forgive the inevitable cliches about late being better than never.

And with Fleming singing the heroine’s music with such gentle rapture, such arching melancholy and such dynamic poise, one can almost accept the fact that California has missed the definitive Rusalka of our time, Gabriela Benackova. Lucky New York experienced both sopranos in the role.

Fleming--all wounded innocence and ethereal purity--was nicely complemented in San Francisco by two splendid colleagues. As the witch Jezibaba, Felicity Palmer cackled and cajoled with gleeful magnificence and with incisive mezzo-soprano tones that never sank to cartoon excess. As the amorous Prince, Sergei Larin conveyed heroic ardor without strain, even at top range, and actually managed to sing softly in moments of painful introspection (Dvorak would seem to suit this husky Russian tenor better than Puccini).

Philip Skinner exuded properly woeful sympathy as the paternal water sprite. Too bad his dusky basso seemed a size too small for the role. Stephanie Sundine exuded dangerous erotic wit as the Foreign Princess. Too bad her dark spinto soprano wobbled under pressure.

Michel Senechal, character tenor par excellence, made a major event of the minor utterances allotted the Gamekeeper, deftly seconded by Zheng Cao as the reticent Kitchen Boy. The trio of wood nymphs--Nicolle Foland, Kristin Clayton and Pamela Dillard--exerted euphonious charm worthy of the finest Wagnerian Rhinemaidens or Straussian nymphs.

It was a happy afternoon at the opera.

* “Rusalka” continues at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m., Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. and Dec. 10 at 2 p.m. $21-$125 (student/senior rush tickets $25; standing room $8). (415) 864-3330.