“Redolent . . . with forbidden realms of desire. . . . A composite of legends and literary sources, combining aspects of the French tale of Undine, Gerhart Hauptmann's elf, and Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid. The water nymph falls in love with a prince. A witch allows her to enter the human world, but at the price of losing her voice. If she also loses her love, she will be forever doomed to lure men to their deaths in her cold embrace.”
— Edward Rothstein, New York Times, on Kvapil's libretto for Antonín Dvorák's "Rusalka"