Are you willing to become a mute for the one you love? This is one of the many spellbinding love quandaries of Antonin Dvorak’s dramatic opera “Rusalka,” which is making its Korean premiere at the Seoul Arts Center on Thursday evening.

Begging the eternal question of how far would one go to be with the one they love, the three-act opera tells the tale of Rusalka, a water nymph who falls in love with a human prince. Desperate for his love and affection, she makes a deal with an evil witch.

In exchange for becoming a human, which will allow her to chase after the man of her dreams, she will  lose her ability to speak -- which Rusalka is more than willing to give up in order to be with her prince.

However, the seemingly Disney-like love story takes an ugly turn when the prince falls for another woman. Shattered and heartbroken, Rusalka is pushed onto a warpath of revenge.

“I don’t think I’m an inventor, I’m a discoverer, I’m an interpreter,” said Korea National Opera’s artistic director Kim Hak-min, during an interview with The Korea Herald following a press screening of the opera at the SAC on Tuesday.

While the production was initially set for an outside director, Kim decided to step in and take the reins as director when creative differences got in the way. The result is Kim’s more modern envisioning of the classic opera, featuring revamped costuming, stage scenery and lighting. 

“This is not a typical love story with typical characters. This opera has very three-dimensional characters,” he continued. “She (Rusalka) really loves him (the prince). That’s why she decides to abandon everything, to give up everything. She chose temporality over eternity -- that is a huge sacrifice.”

“The story is very touching because the characters are more real than human beings,” Kim said. “Even though this story is a fairy tale, I wanted to approach the opera as a human tale. It’s not merely a fantasy, it’s a story that encompasses a lot of reality and human drama.”

The opera will feature both Korean and English subtitles and stars sopranos Lee Yun-ah and Seo Sun-young as Rusalka, tenors Kim Dong-won and Kwon Jae-heui as the prince and mezzo-soprano Yang Song-mi as evil witch Jezibaba. 

As some scenes feature sexual innuendo, the opera is restricted to teenagers and older.

“Rusalka” will be staged from Thursday to Sunday at the Seoul Arts Center Opera Theater with ticket prices ranging from 10,000 won ($8.70) to 150,000 won. For more information, visit www.nationalopera.org. 

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)