
Giacomo Puccini

Mieczysław Weinberg

Giuseppe Verdi

Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Giuseppe Verdi

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Benjamin Britten

Grigory Frid. Udo Zimmermann

Carl Maria von Weber — Gustav Mahler

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Alexander Tchaikovsky

Giacomo Puccini

Alexander Dargomyzhsky

Richard Strauss

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Giuseppe Verdi

Antonín Dvořák

Dmitri Shostakovich

Gaetano Donizetti

Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Sergei Banevich

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

George Frideric Handel

Georges Bizet

Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Gioachino Rossini

Dimitry Rostovsky

Giacomo Puccini

Richard Wagner

Richard Strauss

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Georges Bizet

Dmitri Shostakovich
Alexei Verstovsky

Anton Rubinstein

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Georg Philipp Telemann

Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Guiseppe Verdi

Sergei Prokofiev

Modest Mussorgsky

Antonio Salieri

Gaetano Donizetti

Benjamin Britten. Camille Saint-Saëns

Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Gioacchino Rossini

Dmitri Shostakovich
Umberto Giordano

Modest Mussorgsky
Hector Berlioz

Giacomo Puccini

Jacques Offenbach

Sergei Prokofiev. Maurice Ravel

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Tatiana Kamysheva

Tchaikovsky received the commission for Iolanta and The Nutcracker from the directorship of the Mariinsky Theatre. It is considered that the idea to combine a one-act opera and a two-act ballet in one evening belonged to the director of the Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky. In July 1891, the composer started working on the opera. In September, the vocal score was completed, and the orchestration was finished in December.
In Autumn 1892, the rehearsals began in the Mariinsky Theatre. The opera was conducted by Eduard Nápravník while Riccardo Drigo conducted the ballet. On the 5th of December 1892 the general rehearsal took place in the presence of Alexander III. “The Sovereign was delighted, invited me to the box and spoke many sympathetic words. The production of both is stunning, and is even too magnificent in ballet, the eyes get tired of the splendour”, as the composer wrote. On the 6th of December 1892 the premiere was a great success. Despite the enthusiastic reception by the audience, the critics took a rather cool attitude to the new creations.
Premiered on October 28, 2015.
Presented without interval.
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Saturday, 12:00
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Saturday, 12:00
Friday, 19:00
Thursday, 19:00
Wednesday, 19:00
Wednesday, 19:00
Tuesday, 19:00
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Saturday, 12:00
Thursday, 19:00
Iolanta, the blind daughter of the King of Provence, is telling her nurse, Martha, that she is full of some unknown longing. Iolanta's friends, Brigitte and Laura, try to cheer her up by singing songs and bringing her flowers. Martha also tries to comfort Iolanta by singing her favorite lullaby. This sends Iolanta to sleep.
Enter Alméric, King René's sword-bearer. He informs the castle porter, Bertrand, that very soon the King will be arriving with a famous Physician who, it is hoped, will cure Iolanta's blindness. The trumpets sound, announcing the arrival of the King. King René enters accompanied by the Moorish Physician, Ibn-Hakia. The King explains that Iolanta has been betrothed from infancy to Robert, Duke of Burgundy, and is soon to marry him, but the Duke does not know that his future wife is blind. Indeed, Iolanta herself is totally unaware of her misfortune. Iolanta has been brought up by her father in this remote castle. He surrounded her with loyal retainers and forbade them on pain of death to tell her the truth. Ibn-Hakia says that the only hope for Iolanta is to inform her of her disability and then, so long as she passionately wishes to recover her sight, she will do so. King René is full of doubts and fear for his daughter's future.