Follow the international tour of BFO right from the pen of Vladimir Fanshil Assistant Conductor!
On the road again: Bus from Bruges to Brussels, flight to Frankfurt, bus to the hotel... If anyone thought traveling was fancy, allow me to de-fog your glasses: only the arrival is!
Last night saw the final performance of Rusalka with the wonderful Czech/Slovak cast and also the last performance of our residency in Bruges.
After three weeks of marinating in the opera, the orchestra has now completely absorbed the piece into its rich Dvorak repertoire .
The benefit of an original language cast is that they communicate the piece in their mother-tongue and this transforms a distant foreign opera into grounded personal story-telling.
All the bursting rolled r's, the explosively pronounced Sestrički and solemn chorals brought an insightful depth of the Slavic soul to the often cliché rendition.
The Brno Choir were as always in top flight with clear cut articulation and a warm rich sound which reached out - like from the depths of the ocean - to embrace Rusalka...
The finale was sincere and stoically delivered with utmost grace by Pavla Vykopalová (Rusalka). Then came the March Funebre which mirrors that in La Traviata, yet this one had a wave like movement of raw pain rolling out phrase after phrase, inducing a hypnotic sense of undercurrent distress for Rusalka's ill-fate. The final pianissimo chords were played in a post-strorm stillness; a long pause was granted space and the afterglow of the journey travelled emerged.
Vladimir Fanshil, Assistant Conductor
