Soprano Vanessa Goikoetxea considers that "the costume design of this Rusalka is one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life”.

 

Tomorrow (Tuesday 5), the Auditorio de Tenerife is premiering its in-house production of the opera Rusalka by Antonín Dvorák. The first show will star the Basque soprano Vanessa Goikoetxea, while on Thursday 7 and Saturday 9 Ángeles Blancas is expected to tackle the role as she waits to recover after being a little unwell.

For Vanessa Goikoetxea, "The costume design of this Rusalka is impressive, it is one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life”. The soprano is making her debut with this show at the Opera de Tenerife and says that "although I have spent little time in the production, I have felt a lot of support and love from the entire team, so much that I feel at home here”.

Goikoetxea acknowledges that it is a character that she feels comfortable with vocally, exploiting her most dramatic facet, but she also really identifies with the musical aspect and even emotionally. Rusalka is much more than the little mermaid, she is sensual but childlike, a dreamer, human and non-human... Playing with all of that is very interesting for me" explains the soprano, who adds that "vocally it may seem easy, but Dvořák imbues everything with an impressive lyricism, and he has a brilliant way of handling the voices”.

The soprano recommends to a hesitant audience "that sometimes it is necessary to delve into worlds where you don't have so much control, which can be scary. But I can assure them that they will leave differently from how they entered before the show started. I am certain that they will experience catharsis”.

Vanessa Goikoetxea made her debut with this role in January in Nice. The review in Ópera Actual acknowledged that "the Spanish soprano performed her opening aria forcefully and freely, offering superb high notes, with a firm voice, without variations in timbre or any kind of tremolo”. Jaume Estapá – the author of the article – stated that Goikoetxea "offered nuance in musical passages with a great lyrical feeling and always gave the impression of having authority and a great sense of drama”.

Goikoetxea, who took part in the general rehearsal yesterday, shared the stage with a cast that includes the bass Vazgen Gazaryan, in the role of Vodník, Rusalka's father. The tenor Rodrigo Porras will play the prince with whom Rusalka falls in love. The soprano Magdalena Anna Hofmann plays the role of the foreign princess, a former lover of the prince who will try to stop his relationship with the mermaid. The witch Jezibaba, who grants Rusalka's wish and who in this production will look like an orchestra maestro, will be played by mezzo-soprano Adriana Bignagni Lesca.

The cast is completed by three wood spirits, played by soprano Julietta Aleksanyan and mezzo-sopranos Carmen Artaza and Maria Schellenberg. Baritone Jiří Brückler will take on the roles of a hunter and a forester, while mezzo-soprano Nicole Chirka will be the perceptive kitchen maid. Both characters, who are relatives in the original libretto, act as a kind of stage manager in this production.

The shows this week marks the premiere on the island of the Czech composer's most popular opera, coinciding with the 120th anniversary of his death. It involves a libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil, loosely based on the fairy tale Undine (1811) by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué and inspired by The Little Mermaid (1837) by Hans Christian Andersen and other European tales. Premiered in 1901, the opera is in Czech and will have subtitles in Spanish and English.

This in-house production of the Auditorio de Tenerife also marks the debut in Spain of the Brazilian stage director André Heller-Lopes, who proposes a show that ranges between the classic and the contemporary, the reality and the fantasy, with references to the Canarian coastline, eastern culture and the magic of nature.

In this production, the first act opens with a forest of music stands surrounded by a coastline and sea beds, while the second act shows how a luxury eastern palace emerges on stage. The ending of the third act is different to the children's versions of this story of mermaids in love. In this production, which has involved over two hundred people from several countries on three continents, it is possible to see Indian fabrics, eastern daggers, old instruments and magic effects.

Heller-Lopes' team is completed by the set designer Renato Theobaldo, Marcelo Marques' costumes and the lighting designer Gonzalo Córdova. The Brazilian assistant director also undertakes choreographer duties with the dancers from the ballet Centro Internacional de Danza de Tenerife. The videographer Pedrós created the images that will be screened, and they have a great local component. The British conductor Paul Daniel is the musical conductor of this show. He will conduct the Sinfónica de Tenerife and the Ópera de Tenerife-Intermezzo Choir, directed by Pablo Moras.

The tickets are available on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the auditorium's box office or by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 05:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 02:00 p.m. There are discounts for students, unemployed and large families, and for those under 30, the price is 5 euros.