10 things you didn't know about Rusalka

Rusalka's libretto was written by Czech poet and playwright, Jaroslav Kvapil, and was influenced by folklore and fairy tales. In fact, fans of The Little Mermaid might find the story ever-so-slightly familiar...

It might involve mermaids but Rusalka is definitely a fairy tale for grown-ups. Forget singing cartoon crabs and happy storybook endings, choreographer Lucy Burge describes this production as 'surreal in many ways, very choreographic, dark, beautiful, comic, heart-breaking.' Hankies at the ready!

Many of the characters from Rusalka have their origins in Eastern European folk stories. There's Vodník, the male water goblin, Ježibaba, a Slavic witch character who dates back to the 1700s, and the Rusalki themselves, legendary female water nymphs said to be the souls of young woman coming back to haunt the river or lake where they died. Creepy!

According to legend, the Rusalki would lure unsuspecting young men into the water using their beautiful singing voices. When their victims were submerged the nymphs would entangle them with their long red hair and drown them. Definitely enough to put you off swimming in the local lake!

Rusalka's most famous aria is the beautiful 'Song to the Moon'. Soprano Anne Sophie Duprels explains its appeal: 'This moment in the opera is full of hope. She's asking the moon, please let him hear me, let me be with him, shine upon him. It's very tender and hopeful.' Sure to be a stand-out moment in the show.

Dvořák wanted his music to correspond precisely with the action taking place on stage, and even went so far as to insist Kvapil write comprehensive stage directions into the libretto, which are still used to this day!

Dvořák was the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City from 1892 to 1895, earning a then-massive $15,000 a year – more than he had been paid for all of his previously published works put together! His time in America influenced much of his later writing, including Rusalka and his famous 'From the New World' Symphony No. 9.

Ever wondered how you create a realistic fish-scale pattern? Why, scan a trout and print the material from the picture, of course! Yes, as you'd expect from an opera about water nymphs, there's plenty of fish in this production. Definitely a must 'sea' show...

We're looking forward to welcoming Sir Willard White back to Scottish Opera, to sing the role of Vodník. Jamaican-born Sir Willard has sung at opera houses all round the world, and was last seen at Scottish Opera in our 2013 concert performance of Puccini's Turandot.

Antony McDonald's staging attracted five-star reviews on its previous outings at Grange Park Opera, and was hailed by The Telegraph as a 'strong, focused and imaginative production' and 'an inescapably potent realisation of one of the great late-Romantic operas' by The Guardian. Sounds pretty good to us!