Alexander Dargomïzhsky: Rusalka

Almost forgotten today, Alexander Dargomïzhsky was a major figure in the early history of Russian music. The opera Rusalka was where Dargomïzhsky discovered his own tonal language.

The text is expanded from Alexander Pushkin’s unfinished verse drama into a passionate love story of frivolity, jealousy and revenge.

Dargomïzhsky was the first composer to set a literary drama to music by using the written text. He goes against the conventional divisions into arias, duets and ensembles. Instead he looked to explore the emotion of the original words. “I want the sound to express the word directly. I want the truth”