Song to the Moon
DVORAK 1841–1904
This beautiful, pleading, and almost reverent work is from the first act of Dvořák’s opera, Rusalka. In this Czech version of The Little Mermaid, water sprites are substituted for mermaids. The opera centers on Rusalka, a water sprite who has fallen in love with a human prince. Unfortunately, the prince knows nothing of her existence. Rusalka pleads to the moon to deliver a love message to the prince in this extracted aria. (Eventually, she enlists the help of a witch to make her human, but loses her voice in the process.) Dvořák’s treatment of the orchestra is full of color and effects that reinforce and clarify the text. The strings’ tremelo, rapid bowing on a single note, in their upper registers connote the shimmer of the moon to a careful ear.
— Anthony Suter
Concert Performance
Orchestration
soprano voice, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, english horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, harp