The mermaid Rusalka wants to escape her natural world because she has fallen in love with a prince. But she cannot stand her ground in the world of the big people, and the love for the prince does not last either. Antonín Dvořák and his librettist Jaroslav Kvapil describe their opera "Rusalka", which was premiered with great success in 1901, as a lyrical fairy tale. Motifs from old legends and various literary sources, such as the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen or the story "Undine" by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, are artfully interwoven in this work. Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) set the often seemingly symbolic verses to music with great impressionistic tonal magic, but also late romantic opulence.

Rusalka is a multi-layered fairy tale strongly influenced by Sigmund Freud's explorations of the human psyche in the early 20th century. At its core, the opera is a psychologically powerful work and proves to be the thrilling psychological drama of a woman fighting for love, a self-determined life and her own identity.