Choose a date to see seats and prices

See All Events

2025

July

Sat
19 Jul 2025

Wed
23 Jul 2025

Sat
26 Jul 2025

Tue
29 Jul 2025

August

Fri
01 Aug 2025

Tue
05 Aug 2025

Sat
09 Aug 2025

Mon
11 Aug 2025
Venue

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point, Sydney

Language

Performed in Czech with English surtitles.

Running time

Approximately 3 hours and 5 minutes, including two intervals.

Book a multi-show package and save up to 20%*

Combine this production with one or more shows in the 2025 Season and become a Season Subscriber. You’ll unlock a ticket discount, priority booking, and free ticket exchanges, among other exclusive benefits.

Subscribe now

Strange magic ripples under the water.
And stranger magic in her heart.

Under the surface, Rusalka wants. She wants light. She wants love. She wants life outside of her home in the depths. The water nymph gives up everything to get it. But Rusalka can’t imagine just how much she’s giving up … or if the soul she seeks is worth the sacrifice.

Nicole Car has a once-in-a-generation voice, and is one of the most successful sopranos to emerge from Australia in decades. Don’t miss her return after several years on the world stage to make her role debut as Rusalka.

Dvořák’s rich, Romantic opera draws you into a dream-like world of light and shadow. The music shimmers with intricate harmonies and sweeping melodies, including the famous ‘Song to the Moon’. The lush orchestration paints a vivid atmosphere where magic and malice meet.

Before Disney took Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid into the lives of children everywhere, many cultures told tales of water nymphs who long to live on the surface. Dvořák’s opera fuses the fairy tale with Slavic stories of dangerous water nymphs.

Director Sarah Giles follows up her critically acclaimed La Traviata with a new production of Dvořák’s melodic opera. She creates a mesmerising, dangerous world, where Rusalka longs to escape from a place that doesn’t feel like home. Ethereal costumes by Renée Mulder and an evocative set by Charles Davis glimmer with magic and mystery.

The cast is rounded out by Austrian-Australian tenor Gerard Schneider, Warwick Fyfe, Ashlyn Tymms, and Natalie Aroyan.

“Breathtakingly beautiful and inventive ★★★★½”

Limelight

Rusalka - West Australian Opera (2024)

Credit: Dylan Alcock - West Beach Studio

Rusalka - West Australian Opera (2024)

Credit: Dylan Alcock - West Beach Studio

Rusalka - West Australian Opera (2024)

Credit: Dylan Alcock - West Beach Studio

Rusalka - West Australian Opera (2024)

Credit: Dylan Alcock - West Beach Studio

Rusalka - West Australian Opera (2024)

Credit: Dylan Alcock - West Beach Studio

Rusalka - West Australian Opera (2024)

Credit: Dylan Alcock - West Beach Studio

Join the waitlist

Complete the sign-up form for priority access to individual operas.

By joining the waitlist, you agree to join our promotional program, which includes receiving our e-newsletter.

Cast & Creative

Conductor
Director
Set Designer
Costume Designer
Renée Mulder
Lighting Designer
Video Designer and Content Creator
Movement Director and Intimacy Coordinator
Dr Lyndall Grant
Rusalka
The Prince
Gerard Schneider
The Water King
The Duchess
Ježibaba

Opera Australia Orchestra
Opera Australia Chorus

Rusalka at Sydney Opera House

Cheat Sheet: Rusalka

A cheat's guide to Dvořák’s fairy tale opera of love and loss.

What happens in the story? Who was the composer? What should I expect from the music? Here’s everything you need to know…

Read the cheat sheet

Synopsis

ACT I

Rusalka, an unhappy water spirit, wants to leave her native waters. She has fallen in love with a Prince and she dreams of a life with him in the sunshine. She begs her father, the Water King, to free her from her watery home and to help make her human so she can live on land with him. Her confession devastates her father. He thinks humans are evil and full of sin, but he sees that Rusalka has made up her mind. He advises her to visit the enchantress of the forest, the wise Ježibaba. Rusalka confides in the moon and calls on the moon to help her.

Rusalka visits the wise enchantress of the forest, Ježibaba, who explains that once human, Rusalka will never be able to return to her native waters, and that should she fail to find love with the Prince she will be damned for eternity, trapped between the worlds. Ježibaba explains that it will not be easy to find this love, because no human will be able to hear a word Rusalka says. Rusalka is determined that she can find love despite having no voice. Ježibaba adds that should Rusalka fail to find and keep this love, her Prince will also be damned for eternity. Rusalka agrees and Ježibaba turns her into a human.

The sound of horns heralds the breaking of dawn and the entrance of the Prince. He is in pursuit of a white doe but feels a mysterious attraction when he comes to the lake. Rusalka comes into sight. The Prince is enchanted and doesn’t know if she is human or a fairy tale. Rusalka is elated to meet her Prince and they leave for his palace. By the lake, the water spirits mourn the loss of Rusalka.

Read More