Dvorak's Song to the Moon

Song to the Moon, from Rusalka. 

I was browsing the—usually annoying, but surprisingly interesting—feed from YouTube, when I stumbled on this soprano aria from 2018.  I'll try and link it here, but I've had bad luck doing that the past few times I have tried. [Succeeded!]

Apparently it's from his opera Rusalka.  It just knocked me flat; it was so lovely.  The girl entreats the moon to remind her lover that she waits for him.  Near the end, she practically screams at the moon to not disappear!  I can certainly sympathize; you don't want the one to whom you're talking to start walking away,  or disappearing!

I would say that this aria is as deeply moving as Strauss's fourth Last Song: Im Abendrot, though it is much more diatonic. 

I read the synopsis of the story on Wikipedia, and it is essentially identical to that of The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen.  'Rusalka' means, essentially, water spirit in Czech, and except for some details, the story follows that of the Andersen fairy tale.  It ends in tragedy, which—I believe—was the original Andersen ending. 

Not surprisingly, the best performances of the aria is by those who were native speakers of Czech, or at least those who understood the language.  When Rusalka scolds the moon for disappearing, Dvorak's setting is very angry.  That's probably appropriate, considering that Rusalka is the child of The Water Sprite, a powerful spirit.

https://youtu.be/Us_F2xLJgKI?si=BdZOIjP3NoTlaFGi