When wild cheers turn to boos in the space of five seconds, you know an impression has been made. And perhaps we should expect nothing less of Rusalka’s much-delayed Royal Opera House debut, which provoked such mixed reactions at its first night last week. I had some sympathy with the booers. The directors Sergio Morabito and Jossi Wieler have thrown just about everything at the fairy-tale opera including a neon crucifix, a disembowelled sheep and an oversized black cat who has his wicked way with the title water nymph. Fake blood is used where possible and sexual innuendo is piled on with abandon, often with little encouragement from the music or libretto. It’s all rather overwhelming, but somehow, the work’s fundamental values shine through: forgiveness, constancy and the redemptive power of selfless love, all manifested in the character of Rusalka, who gives up her voice, her home and ultimately her existence for love. Meanwhile the cast and orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin do full justice to the music’s shimmering beauty.

With so much obvious narrative and musical appeal, Rusalka makes a welcome addition to the Royal Opera House repertory. So why has it taken so long to get there? After all, it is hardly a stranger to the UK, with Glyndebourne’s 2009 production probably the freshest in our memories. And further afield, directors are eager to make their mark on the opera: it is currently being staged in no fewer than 10 European cities. More than a century after its 1901 premiere, Rusalka ranks amongst the most treasured Czech exports.

But this is a relatively recent phenomenon, which belies decades of indifference and neglect – not in Prague where the opera was an immediate hit, but abroad. And the UK is no exception. The first major British staging of Rusalka didn’t take place until 1959, when it was performed at Sadler’s Wells under the baton of the Czech conductor Vilém Tauský. The response was bitingly hostile. Some critics praised the music but expressed doubts as to its lasting quality. Some dismissed the story as tedious and naïve. Others laid into the production and singers, only excusing Charles Craig’s sotto voce rendition of the prince because he had bronchitis.

So, what has changed? Perhaps it’s a matter of promotion: tireless advocacy from conductors such as Charles Mackerras and Tauský, the latter of whom repeatedly conducted the opera over two decades, has undoubtedly helped to embed it in our consciousness. Perhaps it’s down to changing fashion and tastes: in a present-day, cosmopolitan Britain, Rusalka no longer risks being dismissed as an exotic curiosity. Or perhaps, as is often the case, it took one probing production to reveal the opera’s hidden potential. I’m referring to David Pountney’s seminal 1983 staging for the ENO which tapped into the psychological content buried within Jaroslav Kvapil’s libretto.

Whether or not Dvořák himself realised the depth of Kvapil’s text is uncertain. His sweetly melodious score, generously sprinkled with magical effects, suggests that he approached the story very literally. And even now, many people prefer productions that do the same; that mirror the music’s delicate, innocent poetry by taking the fairy tale at face value. Nevertheless, Pountney’s production sparked a new interest in Rusalka, inspiring a wave of directors to engage with the opera’s subtext. By now we’ve had all sorts of weird and wonderful Rusalkas: Rusalka the prostitute (Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels); Rusalka set in a colonial Haiti (English Touring Opera); Rusalka in a wintry kingdom of ice cubes (Opera North); and so on.

This Royal Opera House production – first seen in Salzburg in 2008 – is the latest to jump on the bandwagon. Although it may not be for everyone, even the booers at last week’s opening can’t deny its significance, as one of the final major milestones in the opera’s assimilation into British culture.

But it isn’t the first time the Royal Opera has attempted to stage Rusalka. In 1939, the Czech National Opera Company was invited to present the work alongside Smetana’s The Secret under Václav Talich as part of an International Opera Season at Covent Garden. Shortly after the plan was announced, Germany occupied the remains of western Czechoslovakia and the visit was postponed. Who would have guessed we’d have to wait more than 70 years for a re-match?

For more information about Rusalka’s reception in the UK, read ‘Vilém Tauský’, a memoir of the conductor published by the Dvořák Society in 2010; to read Antony's Craig blog on the ROH's Rusalka, click here