What’s the difference between a wood sprite and a water nymph?

In the Metropolitan Opera of New York’s production of “Rusalka,”  an opera by AntonÍn Dvorák, there are three wood sprites (in green filmy dresses) and one water nymph – Rusalka herself, in shades of watery blue. The wood sprites do a lot of fluttery dancing and running around on tiptoe, laugh a lot and show a lot of leg at times, in their gossamer green dresses. Rusalka… Well, she is not a happy wood nymph, most of the time. By the way, we enjoyed this opera at Kingston’s Carib cinema as part of an incredible “The Met: Live in HD” series, courtesy of Palace Amusement Company. We are confirmed addicts.

This beautiful lyrical opera took me back to my childhood, when I devoured books of fairy tales. My favorites were twelve collections of fairy tales, myths and legends…