A dark and twisted Little Mermaid tale swims into the Glasshouse Theatre

Their patriarch Vodnik (Warwick Fyfe) is as much cult leader as Water King; it’s little wonder his wistful nymph daughter Rusalka (Eleanor Lyons) would look to dry land and want to be where the people are. The composer’s tightly orchestrated score is powered by Czechian folk melody and Wagnerian leitmotif – those musical cues signalling characters, emotions and epiphanies. It practically takes the listener by the hand, with flutes signalling the fluttering of hearts, shimmering harps evoking sunlight on water, and the timpani flagging the forces of destiny.