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Rusalka, the Naiad - soprano The Water Sprite - bass The Prince - tenor The Witch - contralto The Foreign Princess - mezzo-soprano The Three wood nymphs - sopranos, contralto The Gamekeeper - baritone The Turnspit - soprano The Hunter - baritone the naiads, The suite of the Prince, wedding guests The wood nymphs: Ho, ho, ho, the moon is standing over the water! Curiously it peers into the depths, flowing over the rock to the bottom, Vodník nods his head, ho, his old green head. Ho, ho, ho, who goes there through the night? Vodník, the moon is rising, swinging into your window. Soon it will sneak in, ho, into your silvery chamber! Ho, ho, ho, the moon is roaming over the water! A breeze is dancing along the lake, Vodník has awoken, that jester, ho, ho, ho. Bubbles are now rising from the bottom, ho, ho, ho, Vodník above the water! Vodník wants a woman, which of you wants to foam the water, comb the old man’s hair, change places, ho, with Vodník’s wife? Ho, ho, ho... The Watersprite: A warm welcome from the wood to the lake! What, do the boisterous girls feel sad there? Down on the bottom I’ve got nothing but splendour, and I’ve got golden fishes there by the sackful. I’ll dash through the reeds, just stretch out my hand, grab a little miss, catch her by the feet, pull her down to our abode. The wood nymphs: Vodník, come on, hey, so catch us! The one you catch, dear man, will give you a nice kiss, but your wife, ha ha ha, will pull your ears! So catch us! The Watersprite: Roguish creatures! How madly they run! Up and down, through the field, well, they’re young! Rusalka: Vodník, daddy dear! The Watersprite: Good grief, child! What are you doing? Drying my nets here in the moonlight! Rusalka: Vodník, daddy dear, until the waters foam up stay with me a while, so I won’t feel sad! The Watersprite: What, you’re sad? Rusalka: I’ll tell you all! The Watersprite: And down below, too? Rusalka: So sad I could suffocate! The Watersprite: Below, where it’s all dancing and play? Impossible! Speak! Rusalka: I’d like to leave you all, to leave the depths, to be human and live in the golden sunshine! I’d like to leave you all, to leave the depths. The Watersprite: Can I believe my ears? To be human? A mortal being? Rusalka: You yourself used to tell strange tales, that they have a soul, which we don’t. And the souls of people go to heaven, when the human dies and vanishes into nothing! The Watersprite: As long as your native wave cradles you, don’t wish for a soul. It’s full of sin. Rusalka: And full of love! The Watersprite: Ye ancient waters! Don’t tell me, child, you love a human! Rusalka: He often comes here and steps into my embrace, throws his clothes on the bank and bathes in my arms. But I’m only a wave; he’s not allowed to see my being. Oh, I know I’d first have to be human, so that as I embrace him and enfold him in my arm he might himself embrace me and kiss me fervently! The Watersprite: Child, night after night your sisters will weep for you! There’s no help for you, once a human has enticed you into his power! Rusalka: Vodník, dearest, he must be made to see me! Tell me, daddy, what am I, sad creature, to do? The Watersprite: Lost forever, lost to the world of humans! It’s futile to entice you below to our merriment. Call Ježibaba, oh poor, pale Rusalka! Alas! Alas! Alas! Rusalka: Oh moon in the deep sky, your light sees far, you roam over the wide world, and peer into human dwellings. Oh moon, stay a while, tell me, where is my love? Tell him, silvery moon, that my arms enfold him, so that for at least a moment he’ll remember me in his dream. Shine for him into the distance, tell him who awaits him here! If the human soul dreams of me, may he awake with that thought! Oh moon, don’t fade! That water chills me! Ježibaba! Ježibaba! The Watersprite: Oh poor, pale Rusalka! Alas! Alas! Alas! Rusalka: Ježibaba! Ježibaba! Ježibaba: Lamenting, sobbing, wailing! Who’s waking me before dawn? Rusalka: Ježibaba, give me a potion, take the watery magic from me! Ježibaba: I hear something, I sniff something, speak up and tell me who you are! Rusalka: I’m Rusalka, a water nymph. Give me a potion, dear aunty! Ježibaba: If you’re a nymph, show yourself nimbly, Show yourself to me, lovely child! Rusalka: I’m fettered by the waves, tangled in water lilies. Ježibaba: Tear yourself out, step, hop, hurry into my hut! Let her go, little wave, let her come to me, let her feet touch the ground! Little feet, carry her, little feet, hold her! Lo, the feet already know how to walk! Rusalka: Ježibaba! Help! Your wisdom of the centuries knows all, you’ve penetrated nature’s mysteries, in the deep nights you dream of people, you understand the age-old elements. From earthly poisons and moonbeams you can brew thousands of potions. You can join, you can demolish, you can kill, you can create. Human into monster, monster into human, you can transform them with your age-old wisdom! In the night the water nymphs tremble before you. For human woes you prepare wondrous cures, for us and for people in the wide world you yourself are a natural element, you yourself are human. An eternity with death is your dowry. Help me, wondrous woman! Help me! Ježibaba: I know all about that, such wishes are brought to us! But listen, listen closely, before you taste the potion: You’ve got pearls and you’ve got beauty. If I help you, what will you give me? Rusalka: All that I have you can take, but make me human! Ježibaba: And nothing more? Nothing more at all? That’s why you’ve come snivelling? You’ve had enough of water, and you hunger for a human body? For loving and playing, kisses and sweetness. I know all about that. Such wishes are brought to us! Rusalka: Your wisdom knows all. Give me a human body, a human soul! Ježibaba: I will, I will, by the devil, I will! But you must give me your diaphanous, watery dress. And if you don’t find love in the world, you must live as an outcast back in the depths, accursed. If you should lose the love for which your feelings crave, then the curse of the watery powers will drag you back into the deep! And before you win it you’ll also suffer: to all human ears you’ll remain mute! Do you want to be mute, do you? For the one you love? Rusalka: If I can know his love, gladly, believe me, I’ll go mute for him! Ježibaba: Guard him, guard him, and know this: If you return cursed to Vodník’s realm, you’ll destroy your lover, too! He’ll become forever the victim of your eternal damnation! Rusalka: With a pure human soul my love shall overcome all spells! Ježibaba: Come, then, come quickly, come with me into my hut! We’ll brew up poisons in the fireplace, and give them to Rusalka to drink! But then not a word. Abracadabra! Abracadabra, white mist is rising from the meadows! A drop of dragon’s blood, ten drops of bile, the warm heart of a bird, already the kettle is hissing. Jump, my tomcat, jump, stir the brew in the kettle! Abracadabra, don’t be afraid of greater torments! This is your human dowry, and you must drink it. This brew will make your tongue go wooden. Jump, my tomcat, come on, hey, poor this juice down her throat! Abracadabra, but now not a word! The Watersprite: Oh poor, pale Rusalka! Alas! Alas! Alas! The Hunter: A young hunter rode and rode, he saw a white doe in the forest. Deep eyes she had, will my arrow strike her? Oh, young hunter, hurry on, don’t shoot this white doe, beware her body! Will my arrow strike her? The Prince: Here I glimpsed her and then she vanished! Over hill, over dale, through forest and field, this wondrous creature passes quickly by and here the track has vanished completely! And a mysterious rippling in these waters entices me into their arms, as if inviting me to cool the passion of the hunt in their embrace. My stride falters, i feel a strange yearning, my weapon falls from my weary hand. The hunt has scarcely begun, and suddenly has tired me, that strange magic has seized me again! The Hunter: That was no doe, Hunter, stop! God protect your soul! Your heart is terribly sad, whom did your arrow strike? The Prince: Stop the hunt, return to the castle. Strange magic is wandering in the forest, and stranger magic in my heart. Return home, I want to be alone! Wondrous vision, immensely sweet, are you human or a fairy tale? Have you come to protect that rare creature I glimpsed in the dimness of the forest? Have you come to beg for her life, oh sister of the white doe? Or do you yourself, as you come toward me, want to be the hunter’s booty? Are your lips sealed by a secret, or has your tongue fallen forever silent? If your lips are mute, God knows I’ll kiss an answer from them! An answer to the mysteries that enticed me here, that called me past thorns, past crags, for me finally, on this blissful day, child, to be suddenly enchanted by your gaze! What’s hidden in your heart? If you love me, give me a sign! The Naiads: Sisters, one of us is missing! Sister dear, where have you gone? The Watersprite: Across hills, valleys, and woods! The Naiads: Sister dear, where are you? The Prince: I know you are magic that will pass and dissolve into a play of mist. But while our time lasts, oh my fairytale, don’t flee! My hunt is over, why think of it? You are my most precious doe, you’re a golden star shining into the dark night. My fairytale, come with me! The Gamekeeper: Do tell, dear boy, what else? What kind of entertainment is being prepared in the palace today? So many guests in the banquet hall, work in the kitchen, fabulous dishes on the tables and shelves! The Pantryboy: We’re in a rush now, dear uncle VanÄ›k, from dawn to dusk, we never stop working! Just imagine, uncle, have you ever heard such a thing? The Prince found in the forest a strange creature, and it seems - can you believe it? - he might marry it! They say he found her in your woods, in your deep forest. But wherever he got her, uncle, I’d be scared of her! The girl is mute and has not a drop of blood, She walks about as though stunned! What a fine wife she’d make! The Gamekeeper: Is it really true, what they’re saying everywhere? My poor, dear boy, it seems that it is! May the Lord God protect us. As an old huntsman I say that in this loving lies strange magic! My forest is haunted by sinister powers, in the forest strange comrades walk about at midnight. If the soul in the body is weak, Ježibaba will hex it, beneath the banks of the lake it can easily happen, the water gnome will drag you to the bottom! And whoever sees the wood nymphs, without blouse, without skirt, will be dazed by a craving for love. The Lord God be with us, and away with evil! The Pantryboy: Uncle, I’m afraid! The Gamekeeper: Well, it’s no wonder. May the Lord God have mercy on your sinful soul! The Pantryboy: Our prince was always so handsome, how he’s changed now! He’s not as he was, no, he wanders about as in a trance, the old woman Háta has prayers said for him every day. And when the priest heard about it he came to warn the prince. But the prince would hear none of it – the girl is to stay! The Gamekeeper: That’s why the guests are here! That’s why everything’s being taken from the cupboards! That’s why I hurried to bring lots of game to the palace! The Pantryboy: Luckily it seems it wasn’t meant to be: another woman may spoil everything! Old Háta tells how the prince is fickle. She says his love is already fading, that he has another woman on his mind, that some foreign princess has now caught his eye! The Gamekeeper: Oh Lord God, may it be so. Preserve him in good health! If I were the prince, without ado I’d chase out that strange girl, before she entangles me in hell. Let that good-for-nothing get out of here! The Pantryboy: Ugh, here comes the prince leading that creature! The Gamekeeper: And I’m not going to wait for her! The Prince: For a week already I have you by my side, I see you before me like a vision from a fable, and vainly in your deep eyes I seek your mysterious being. Am I to find only in marriage what love has long craved? That your ardour might be ignited and you might be my woman completely? Why does your embrace chill me, why is it afraid of passion? Why is a pang of anxiety all that I feel in your arms? And vainly I suppress a feeling of sadness; from your arms there’s no escape. However cool you are, and timid, I must have you, possess you completely! The Foreign Princess: No, it’s not love, it’s a feeling of rage, that another dwells where I wanted to be, and that I was not destined to have him. Let happiness die completely for both of them! Will the prince remember for a moment, after all, that the lover is also a host? This happiness the world bestows on you: should a guest only gaze on it silently? The Prince: Oh, a truly timely reproach, and from your dear lips I bear it gladly! Even the bridegroom, lovely princess, is above all only your servant! The Foreign Princess: And your beautiful bride, mistress of your emotions, has not a word of reprimand for you? Or has she so much tenderness in her gaze that she speaks to you only with her eyes? The Prince: But her eyes forgot to say that the host has become negligent. Let him now quickly compensate, if you allow, for his absent-minded, momentary neglect. Why your anxiety? And why do you tremble so? Hasten to your chamber and dress for the ball! The Foreign Princess: Oh, don a fabulous gown! I have his courtesy, but you have his heart. The Watersprite: Alas! Alas! Oh poor, pale Rusalka, sent by a spell into the dazzling world! Alas! The whole world will not give you what blooms in the realm of water! You could be a human a hundred times, but you’re bound to the ancient yoke. A human could love you a hundred times, but you can’t bind him forever! Oh poor, pale Rusalka, captured by the magic of human fetters! Your water seeks you everywhere, in vain wanting to embrace you! When you return to your sisters you’ll be only an element that brings death. You’ll return faded by living; you’ve fallen victim to the curse of the elements. Poor, pale Rusalka, sent by a spell into the dazzling world! Chorus: White flowers along the way, all along the way they bloomed. A lad rode and rode to see his bride and the day smiled so brightly. Don’t tarry, lad, hasten to your beloved. Soon you’ll grow up to be a man. When you come back this way the blooms will be red roses. The white flowers were first to wilt in the hot sun. But these fiery roses adorn the wedding bed. The Watersprite: Poor, pale Rusalka, sent by a spell into the dazzling world! Alas! On the waters a white water lily dreams; it will be your sad companion. For your wedding bed no red roses bloom! Rusalka, do you recognize me, do you? Rusalka: Vodník, daddy dear! The Watersprite: Have I come to your palace to see you grieving so soon? Rusalka: Daddy, Vodník, save me, save me; horrible anxiety has seized me! Oh, that I wanted to betray you all! Wretched is the one who knows humans! Alas! Alas! Another woman’s beauty ensnared him at once: wild, human beauty. As for me, he no longer knows me, Rusalka with her flowing hair! The Watersprite: What, he rejected you? The one who loved you? You must now persevere! Rusalka: Oh, it’s futile, it’s futile, and my heart is empty. Futile are all my charms, when I’m only half human! Oh, it’s futile, he know longer knows me, Rusalka with her flowing hair. Her eyes blaze with the force of passion, that accursed human passion! Whereas I am born of cool water, and lack that passion! Accursed by all of you, for him lost, a faint echo of the ancient elements! Neither woman nor fairy can I be; I cannot die, and cannot live! I cannot die, and cannot live! Do you see them, do you? They’re here again! Daddy, save me, save me! The Foreign Princess: I see a strange glow in your eyes and listen to you dumbfounded. You’re ever more ardent and sweet! Oh prince, what does this mean? Where has your chosen one fled? The one without speech and without name? Where has she fled? She should see that the prince has changed completely! The Prince: Where has she gone? Dear God knows! But this change is your own fault! And the summer night won’t tell that a different has captured me! Oh, call it a whim that I loved another for a while. And be a blazing fire, where till now burned the white light of the moon! The Foreign Princess: When my fire has seared you and horrified all your passions, when I leave you and travel far away, what will you do with the lustre of the moon? When you are embraced by the lovely arms of that mute, somnambulant beauty, what will warm you to passion? What a waste of that passion! The Prince: And if the whole world should condemn my longing, you are the glowing blossom, even if it bloomed for a moment only! Only now do I realize why my body was languishing, when in the mystery of love it sought a cure! What will remain of that love in whose snares I became entangled? I’ll gladly throw off all bonds to be able to love you! The Foreign Princess: Oh, only now do I realize that courting suddenly beckons to me. The groom, it seems, does not himself know whether he’s wooing me or another! The Prince: Your shoulders freeze me, you white beauty, white and cold! The Watersprite: Rush into the arms of another, rush, rush. From the embrace of this one you’ll never escape! The Prince: From the embrace of a mysterious power save me! The Foreign Princess: Into the nameless abyss of hell hurry after your chosen one! Rusalka: Oh insensitive watery power, you’ve dragged me back down into the deep. Why in this chill, hopeless, don’t I perish, oh, why don’t I perish? Deprived of my youth, without the joy of my sisters, condemned for my love, I pine in the cold currents. Having lost my sweet charm, cursed by my beloved in vain I long to return to my sisters, in vain I long for the world. Where are you, magic of summer nights, over the chalices of water lilies? Why in this chill, helpless, don’t I perish, oh, why don’t I perish? Ježibaba: What, what? You’re back already? Well, you didn’t stay there long! And what pale cheeks you have, and how you’re grieving here all alone! What, were the kisses not to your taste, and didn’t a human bed warm you? Rusalka: Oh, alas, dear auntie, everything betrayed me, everything is lost! Ježibaba: Short was the loving, long will be the moaning, after kisses from a man’s lips endless, eternal fasting! Humans are humans, cast out by the elements, long ago torn from the roots of the earth. Wretched the one who wanted to know human love, the one whom human betrayal has now damned! Rusalka: My wise auntie, tell me auntie, is there no hope for me? Ježibaba: Your sweetheart rejected you, stopped loving you, and now Ježibaba is to help you again? After worldly adventures, dear girl, you’d now like to return to your sisters? Well, I do have advice, good advice I have, but whether you’ll listen, the devil himself knows! With human blood you must wash away the curse of the elements for the love you wanted to have in a man’s embrace. You’ll be again what you were before, before the world deceived you, but only the heat of human blood can cure you. Freed of all torments, you’ll be happy at once, if your hand kills the one who deceived you, seduced you! Rusalka: Ježibaba, alas, what are you saying? Ježibaba: Take this knife and promise you’ll obey! Rusalka: You horrify me; let me be, let me be! I want to suffer eternally in anguish, to feel forever my curse, my whole rejected love. I want to see all my hopelessness, but he, he must be happy! Ježibaba: To the human life of deceit your longing enticed you and now you haven’t the strength to spill human blood? Humans are not humans until they’ve wet their hands in another’s blood, when, incited by passion, they have become drunk on the blood of a neighbour! And you wanted to be a human and intoxicate a man with passion? You empty little water bubble, you moonlit, pale good-for-nothing, go, suffer for ever and ever and shrivel up with longing for your human! Rusalka: Torn from life into deep solitude, without companions, without sisters I’m to live. Oh my love, I know, I know, I’ll never see you. Oh, woe is me a hundred times! The Nymphs: You went away into the world, fled from our fun and games, you sister accursed, don’t come to us! Our dances are off bounds to one whom a human has embraced, we’ll run away, run away if you come near! Your sadness wafts fear into our happy playing, with will o’ the wisps in marshes in the night you should play! Lure people with your glow, at forks in paths you should move about now, with your little blue light enticing them to the grave! On graves and forks in paths you’ll find the dancing and playing of other sisters, to the games of your watery sisters don’t return! The Gamekeeper: Scared, you say? Chatter, babble! After all, others have been here! Knock and say nicely, what they told you at home to say: that the prince is tormented, that he’s lost his wits, that some accursed creature from hell came to our castle, and that the old woman Háta begs Ježibaba for advice! The Pantryboy: My legs are paralyzed, I can’t see clearly. For the living God, uncle, go there yourself! Gamekeeper: How many times I've passed this way; sometimes it was already dark. You're a real scaredy cat, that you're afraid of an old woman! The Pantryboy: Once when you were visiting us, you yourself, uncle, frightened me, so don't be surprised, dear comrade, that in the forest I'm filled with fear! Gamekeeper: Jabber, jabber, sometimes I spice it up. But now quickly try to get an answer! Be a man, hey, knock, ask the hag for advice! The Pantryboy: I’d surely jabber, I’m so scared. You’d better ask her about it yourself! The Gamekeeper: Ashamed I’d be, ashamed, if I were your father! But just so you can see I’m not afraid! Ježibaba, Ježibaba! Hello, hello! Ježibaba: Who’s making that noise? Who’s calling? The Gamekeeper: Old Háta is sending us, Ježibaba, for your advice! Ježibaba: In exchange for that advice, for a pinch of wisdom, she’s sending me this puny boy to munch on? As soon as we fatten him up, the pitiful thing, he’s make a nice little roast! The Pantryboy: Let me go, let me get out of here! Uncle, she wants to eat me! Ježibaba: Ha, ha, you little runt, stupid creature. You’d make a fine roast to eat! May your accursed race grow ripe for hell! And now say quickly what you’re supposed to tell me! The Pantryboy: Our prince is very, very ill, his heart bewitched by some sort of enchantress. He brought her to the castle, gave her everything, loved her like his very own life. She would have become his wife, but the lovely enchantress didn't stay for the wedding. When she had him thoroughly confounded, that unfaithful enchantress vanished. The whole castle is in a magical stupor to this day. The devil himself took that enchantress and carried her off to hell! The Watersprite: Who do you say carried her off? Whom do you say she betrayed? Accursed the breed that sends you here! Wretched creatures! He himself betrayed her, cast her into damnation! The Gamekeeper: The water gnome! The Pantryboy: Uncle, for God’s sake, uncle! The Watersprite: I’ll take my revenge, I will, wherever my realm extends! Ježibaba: Ha, ha, ha, ha! The 1st wood nymph: I have golden tresses, yes I do. The fireflies fly down to them. My white hand has let my tresses down. The moon is combing them with its silvery light. I have golden tresses, yes I do! The 2nd wood nymph: I have white feet, yes I do. I ran through the whole meadow. I ran barefoot and the dew washed them. The moon shod them in golden slippers! The 3rd wood nymph: I have a lovely little body, yes, I do, and on the meadow at night it shines with its charm. Wherever I run, my white limbs are clothed in silver and gold by the moon. The wood nymphs: Let’s dance, sisters, let’s dance into the gentle night breeze! In a moment from the reeds we’ll hear calling the green water gnome! Here he is, here he is, mending his nets, here he is! Vodník, come on, hey, quickly catch us! The one you catch, dear man, will give you a nice kiss. But your wife, ha, ha, ha, Vodník, will pull your ears! Vodník, come on, hey, quickly catch us! The Watersprite: Don’t tease me coyly, golden-haired children. Our native waters have clouded with human grief. The wood nymphs: What’s spoiling our merry games? Tell us, dear man, tell us! The Watersprite: Deep on the bottom is moaning, rejected by her sisters, poor, pale Rusalka! Oh, alas! The 1st wood nymph: I feel a tear in my eye; a chill has suddenly blown on me. The 2nd wood nymph: In gray clouds the moon has hidden. The 3rd wood nymph: Darkness is pressing into me. Sisters, let’s flee! The Prince: My white doe! My fairy tale! My mute vision! Will my lamenting, my constant rush never end? From day to day driven by longing, I seek you, panting, in the woods. If night approaches, I sense you in it, I grasp at you in the moonlit mist, I seek you all over the earth! My fairy tale, come back to me! This is the place, speak, silent woods! Sweet vision, my love, where are you? My white doe! Where are you? By everything I have in my dead heart, I invoke both heaven and earth, I invoke both God and the demons! Show yourself! Where are you, my love? Rusalka: My love, do you recognize me, do you? My love, do you still remember? The Prince: If you’re long since dead, destroy me at once! If still alive, save me, save me! Rusalka: Neither alive nor dead, neither women nor nymph, accursed, I wander as a phantom. In vain, for a moment in your arms I dreamed of my pitiful love. Your lover I was, but now I’m only your death! The Prince: Without you life is not possible anywhere! Can you forgive me? Rusalka: Why did you call me into your arms? Why did your lips lie? Now I’m a moonlit apparition for your eternal torture! Now I deceive you in the dark of night; my womanhood is defiled and with the will-o’-the-wisps on the waters I entice you into the depths. Why did you call me into your arms? Why did your lips lie? You sought passion, I know, I know, which I lacked. And now if I kiss you you’re lost completely! The Prince: Kiss me, give me peace! I don’t want to return to the merriment of the world! Keep kissing me till I die! Rusalka: And you, my lad, gave me so much, why, my lad, did you deceive me? Do you know, my lad, do you know? That from my arms you’ll never return? That with this annihilation in my arms you’ll pay for it? The Prince: I want to give you everything, kiss me a thousand times! I don’t want to return, I’ll gladly die, kiss me, kiss me, give me peace. I don’t want to return, I’ll gladly die, I’ve no thought of returning! Rusalka: My love will freeze all your senses! I must destroy you, I must take you into my icy embrace! The Prince: Kiss me, give me peace! Your kisses will absolve me of my sin. I die happy in your embrace! The Watersprite: In vain he’ll die in your arms, futile are all sacrifices, Oh poor, pale Rusalka! Alas! Rusalka: For your love, for that beauty of yours, for your inconstant human passion, for everything by which my fate is cursed, human soul, God have mercy on you! |
| libretto by David R. Beveridge |