Composed in 1900 replete with dryads and naiads, Dvorák's penultimate opera Rusalka is a melodic, colorful, evocative, spacious, atmospheric, and symphonically conceived work composed in the post-Wagnerian tradition without losing the Czech folk flavor. This work is not new to conductor Václav Neumann and soprano Gabriela Benacková. Because they had recorded it in 1984 for Supraphon three years prior to this live performance, this issue begs comparison with that earlier document. When the Supraphon set, recorded in the ...
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Composed in 1900 replete with dryads and naiads, Dvorák's penultimate opera Rusalka is a melodic, colorful, evocative, spacious, atmospheric, and symphonically conceived work composed in the post-Wagnerian tradition without losing the Czech folk flavor. This work is not new to conductor Václav Neumann and soprano Gabriela Benacková. Because they had recorded it in 1984 for Supraphon three years prior to this live performance, this issue begs comparison with that earlier document. When the Supraphon set, recorded in the Rudolphinum in Prague, a space known for being rather colorless, was issued, it was greeted with high praise. However, this issue, a live recording from the Vienna State Opera in April 1987, has more of what was praised in the Supraphon set -- better singing, more atmospheric orchestral playing, better balance between voices and orchestra, and better recording room acoustics. In this lyric fairy tale opera it is not the prince or the foreign princess or the comic game keeper, but the...
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