Opera Queensland’s superb incarnation of Dvořák’s Rusalka is surreal: a cautionary tale, a nightmare as directed by the accomplished Sarah Giles.

Grounded in Slavic folklore and European mythology, this fabulous production was commissioned by the Opera Conference, the national partnership of professional opera companies. The narrative bears traces of the thwarted romance of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué’s Undine and Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. Its themes interrogate alienation and the desperate quest to belong.

Rusalka yearns for a human life. She’s lonely, living among an aquatic sisterhood in a bleak underwater realm ruled by Vodník, the Water King. Warwick Fyfe inhabits the Vodník role as if Dvořák wrote it especially for him. His kingly brooding and morbid reflections are revealed through splendid baritonal gravitas.

Ashlyn Tymms in Opera Queensland’s Rusalka. Photo © Steph Do Rozario

Longing for acceptance and validation, Rusalka is restless, pining. Recalling the story of Faust, she willingly accepts a dodgy deal offered by the witch Ježibaba, wonderfully realised by Ashlyn Tymms. In the throes of an existential meltdown, Rusalka trades her voice and watery home in the blink of an eye, all for the love of...