Iolanta

Opera by Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Performed in Russian (the performance will have synchronised Russian and English supertitles)

Credits

Music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky after Henrik Hertz’s play King René's Daughter

Stage Director: Anna Shishkina
Set and Costume Designer: Pyotr Okunev
Lighting Designer: Vadim Brodsky
Video Designer: Vadim Dulenko
Movement Assistant: Alena Umanetc
Musical Preparation: Marina Repina
Principal Chorus Master: Larisa Shveikovskaya

SYNOPSIS

Iolanta, King Rene’s daughter, is blind. But the girl herself as yet does not know she is blind: Rene has issued a decree by which it is forbidden for anyone to speak of sight or light in her presence. Her father, friends and elderly nurse are all polite and gentle towards Iolanta. The King never abandons hope of his daughter being cured, though he is worried at the idea that in order for this to happen Iolanta must learn that she is blind and that she must desire to be able to see. The knights Gottfried of Vaudemont and his friend Robert arrive at Iolanta’s peaceful refuge. Robert cares little for Iolanta, to whom he has been affianced since childhood, while Vaudemont falls completely in love with the girl. Left alone with Iolanta, Vaudemont asks for a red rose by which to remember her. The girl offers him a white rose and then Vaudemont guesses that she is blind and tells her of the beauty of the world she is missing due to her blindness. Vaudemont’s words, however, do not rouse any desire in Iolanta to be able to see. In despair, King Rene threatens Vaudemont with the death penalty should his daughter not be cured. Fear for the life of the man who has now become close to her awakens in Iolanta the willingness to agree to an operation that will restore her sight. In the meantime Robert admits to the King that he loves someone else and so cannot marry his daughter.
On discovering that Iolanta can now see, the King releases Robert from his own sacred oath, agreeing to permit his daughter to marry Vaudémont.

About the production

Tchaikovsky’s last opera, Iolanta, first appeared on stage a year before the composer’s death, in 1892. It had been conceived as part of a mixed performance, and the premiere of the opera shared a double bill with the two-act ballet The Nutcracker. The musical kinship of both scores is undeniable, but today Iolanta is more likely to exist separately from The Nutcracker on the theatrical stage.
The charm and popularity of solo performances, minor form and a fairy-tale plot with a happy ending have made Iolanta a convenient material for final projects of conservatoire students and an attractive repertoire title for the Russian public. However, behind the facade of a beautiful fairy tale, one can discern a symbolist drama. The characters talk a lot, but they are not engaged in external action mainly; there are hidden meanings in their speeches. In the center of the story there is a blind heroine, who, however, does not need light “to know the beauty of the universe”.
The play Kong Renés Datter (King René’s Daughter) by the Danish poet Henrik Hertz (1845) was familiar to the Russian public in the translation by Vladimir Zotov. It responded to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s desire to write an opera based on “a plot not of this world”. The composer found both the story itself and the libretto written by his brother Modest Tchaikovsky, to be poetic. Pyotr Ilyich must have been captivated by a heroine who does not consider herself unhappy, because she is warmed by faith, and is ready to sacrifice herself for the sake of love. The musical dramaturgy is structured as a movement from darkness to light. The restless obsession of the Introduction gives way to the anthem of light and the laudatory prayer in the Finale. 
Leila Abbasova

World premiere: 6 December 1892, Mariinsky Theatre
Premiere at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre: 5 April 2024, Vladivostok


Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes
The performance without an interval

Age category: 12+
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