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Interview: RUSALKA Light Director, Paule Constable, Talks Dvorák's 'Most Romantic Opera'
By: Katricia Lang Jan. 27, 2016
The visually appetizing lyrical opera RUSALKA hits the Houston Grand Opera stage as part of the Glyndebourne Tour. Composed by Antonín Dvorák and written by poet Jaroslav Kvapil in 1900, RUSALKA is a tragic fairy tale about an ill-fated love affair between a water sprite (or rusalka) and a prince.
Viewers will be familiar with the story as THE LITTLE MERMAID, but based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Bozena Nemcová, RUSALKA has higher stakes and much more torrential emotion. (The HGO bills the tragedy as Dvorák's most romantic opera.)
The mythical world of the tearjerker is populated by witches, wood nymphs, princes and, naturally, rusalkas, so it's a complex production to stage and design. But Glyndebourne Tour lighting designer Paule Constable is armed with a Tony Award a piece for THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME and the astronomically popular fantastical fantasy WAR HORSE and plenty of experience.
BroadwayWorld: As a lighting designer, how do you look at characters, story and themes?
Paule Constable: My job is to understand the themes, the story, the concerns of the production as a director brings it to life. The job of a lighting designer is less about having my own personal response and more about bringing the production, as conceived by the director, to life. My role is reactive. So yes, I am sensitive to the needs and to the music of a piece, but I don't separate out my thoughts about it. We all have to agree on the story we are telling and then tell it. As best we can. I use light to do that. A singer uses their performance. So I see themes differently only in that my tool is light, not my voice or the scenery.
Are there any scenes or sequences that are just thrilling to plan and execute?
The third act, which is all about loving someone enough to let them go. It's about saying goodbye to the person you love the most, about welcoming death and allowing them to die. It's an amazing piece of writing. My response to it was to be so simple - to try to push RUSALKA into the landscape. To create a space where the audience can experience that music and that loss. So the light is very simple, cool, little color, still. And they sing out of it (visually) so nothing distracts from the agony of their goodbye. All building to the kiss when she lets him go. A sequence like that when I am trying to absolutely draw an audience into understanding, feeling - that thrills me.
What sorts of things threw you for a loop during the production and pre-production process?
Doing something fantastical (mermaids, monsters, etc.) is always tough because my work tends to all be based on real things. The aesthetic of the forest at the beginning is all based on dirty ponds - on Arthur Rackham illustrations. Also, Czech children's books - Jan Svankmeyer - it needed to be dark, rich, but also compelling. Not Disney in any way. It's a dirtier world of nature so quite contradictory in many ways!
Do you work on an opera differently than you would theatre?
I came to opera after theatre but immediately fell in love with it. It's harder and more layered than theatre. There are so many disparate elements to try to bring together. Entirely illusive in many ways! That makes it a massive challenge to me. So theatrically - the fact that the music is putting us in a heightened place already - it really helps the form to be extreme, both emotionally and in terms of staging. Opera isn't about the everyday. It gives you enormous space to paint and bring to life. The only rule to me is that you listen to the music [and] make decisions that relate to it. When I'm watching them rehearse? I find opera singers incredible. The noises they can make. To sit 5 feet away from someone like Bryn Terfel wondering around in jeans and a pair of sneakers and singing like that - it's an amazing privilege!
How do the lighting and music interact in RUSALKA? The libretto is literally poetry (by Jaroslav Kvapil)! Do you get to be more bombastic with lights because it's such a melodramatic piece?
The impetus for any change in the space has to come from the music - every cue and shift is timed according to it. You can't do something big on stage without it being supported or it feels as though you are imposing things on it. So the storm in Act 1 for example - all the moves and shifts within this are very specifically worked to reflect what is happening in the pit. Likewise. the end of the opera I was talking about. How poetical you can be depends upon how the director is interpreting the piece. In this production [Director] Melly [Still] wanted to tell the story like a fairy tale, so we are creating a fantastical world. However, as I said, it's fantastical but also real. I wouldn't suddenly want to make it all look like a rock concert because the music is energized. You have to give it space to be - I would say lyrical, yes - not bombastic!
How did you merge your ideas with the vision of the other designers, the performers, the director, the realities of physics? If I were a fly on the wall, what would I have witnessed during rehearsals and production meetings?
The simple way to summarize this is by saying that I spend time on this in design meetings; spending time in rehearsals. We listen to the piece. Discuss it. I immerse myself in a production. That's how I become part of the show. Even watching performers rehearse can tell me so much and can allow me to help to imagine how the show might move in the space. So if you were a fly on the wall you'd see me being part of the team - watching, listening, bringing thoughts to the table. And understanding the piece through Melly [Still's] sensibility.
You've earned a number of awards and nominations for your lighting design. Does this bring comfort or pressure when you start work on a new project?
It's neither really. I don't think about it. The more I do, the less I feel I know. It is all new and challenging. That's regardless of awards or experience. The benefit of experience is that I panic less when it's hard! That's the only positive thing about having done so much!
Natalie de la Garza contributed to the introduction of this article.
RUSALKA. January 29, February 6, 9, 12 at 7:30p; January 31 at 2p. Wortham Theater Center (Brown Theater), 501 Texas Avenue. $18.00-$370.25. 713-546-0200 or 713-228-OPERA (6737). houstongrandopera.org
Estimated run time: 3 hours, 1 minute
Number of intermissions: 2
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