Today’s featured piece – the soprano aria Song to the Moon is the most popular excerpt from Antonín Dvořák’s opera Rusalka. It is the second entry from Dvořák to appear here after Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, B178 “From the New World”. Dvořák was a Czech composer who is considered one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era and also one of the most versatile. Rusalka was his 9th Opera and also his most popular. The rusalka is a water sprite (a water fairy) from Slavic mythology; it usually inhabits a lake or river. Rusalka sings her Song to the Moon, asking it to tell the prince of her love.
For many years Rusalka was largely unfamiliar outside the Czech lands and not a central part of his output or of international theatre. Rusalka was first performed in Prague on 31 March 1901, with Růžena Maturová as the first Rusalka. In recent years it has been performed more regularly by major opera companies. In the five seasons from 2008 to 2013 it was performed by opera companies worldwide far more than all of Dvořák’s other operas combined.
English translation of ‘Song to the Moon‘:
Moon, high and deep in the sky
Your light sees far,
You travel around the wide world,
and see into people’s homes.
Moon, stand still a while
and tell me where is my dear.
Tell him, silvery moon,
that I am embracing him.
For at least momentarily
let him recall of dreaming of me.
Illuminate him far away,
and tell him, tell him who is waiting for him!
If his human soul is, in fact, dreaming of me,
may the memory awaken him!
Moonlight, don’t disappear, disappear!
Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák’s style has been described as “the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them“.
Reference:
1. Rusalka (opera) – Wikipedia
2. Antonín Dvořák – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
Though I like the music I’ve heard by Dvořák, I wasn’t familiar with this opera. But what a beautiful aria and performance by Fleming!
I’m delighted you liked it so!