Tchaikovsky

The prima ballerina of the ballet company of the National Opera of Ukraine, Iuliia Moskalenko, who portrays the leading role of Clara in The Nutcracker, also slips into the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy here. A tour de force for any dancer.

Mezzo-soprano Maria Kataeva (Joan of Arc) and baritone Richard Šveda (Lionel) sing the love duet 'Oh Wonderful, Sweet Dream!' from Tchaikovsky's opera The Maid of Orleans at Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Mezzo-soprano Maria Kataeva sings Joan of Arc's aria 'Farewell, you hills and fields' from Tchaikovsky's opera The Maid of Orleans at Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Mezzo-soprano Maria Kataeva and the Chorus of Deutsche Oper am Rhein interpret Joan's execution and death in Tchaikovsky's opera The Maid of Orleans.

Act I. Tatyana’s (Asmik Grigorian) fate is sealed. She is in love, she confesses to her nurse Filippevna, and writes a love letter to Onegin overnight. Directed by Barrie Kosky and conducted by Henrik Nánási.

Soprano Olga Shcheglova sings Iolanta's aria ‘Atchevo eta prezhde ne znala’ from Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta at Royal Swedish Opera.

Princess Iolanta’s blindness is a well-guarded state secret that risks sparking another war. When Count Vaudémont falls in love with her and offers to cure her blindness, Iolanta is faced with a choice: to continue as before or live her life in a way she has never experienced.

Director Sergey Novikov moves the story of the king’s blind daughter to our own time when an overpowering wealth of information prevents us from seeing the true beauty of the world. Tchaikovsky’s last opera – at the peak of his career – was much acclaimed at the premiere in St. Petersburg in 1892. A year later, it premiered at Royal Swedish Opera, but the one-act opera has not been performed in Stockholm since then.

Dmitry Yankovsky (Ebn-Hakia) sings the baritone aria ‘Dva mira: plotskij i duhovnyj’ from Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta at Royal Swedish Opera.

Princess Iolanta’s blindness is a well-guarded state secret that risks sparking another war. When Count Vaudémont falls in love with her and offers to cure her blindness, Iolanta is faced with a choice: to continue as before or live her life in a way she has never experienced.

Director Sergey Novikov moves the story of the king’s blind daughter to our own time when an overpowering wealth of information prevents us from seeing the true beauty of the world. Tchaikovsky’s last opera – at the peak of his career – was much acclaimed at the premiere in St. Petersburg in 1892. A year later, it premiered at Royal Swedish Opera, but the one-act opera has not been performed in Stockholm since then.

This waltz takes place in Act I, the day of Aurora’s 16th birthday. It became very popular because long excerpts from Tchaikovsky's score - like ‘Once upon a dream…’- were included in the Walt Disney cartoon version produced in 1959.

This excerpt is the Grand Adage à la Rose. In this technically difficult Pas de cinq, Aurore meets suitors and dances with them; each of them offering her a rose.

The Blue Bird Pas de deux in Act III is danced at the time of the Prince and the Princess wedding. The characters come from a fairy tale by Madame d'Aulnoy : a love story between Princess Florine and King Charmant transformed into a blue bird.

A crowd of nursemaids, governesses, strollers and gamblers sing in a lovely May morning...

'At last the Lord has sent us a sunny day.
Sweet air, beautiful sky, just like a May day.
How delightful it is to stroll all day long!
Many years have gone by
Since we have since we have seen such weather
In days of old, we had finer summers, autumns and springs.'

Mezzo-soprano Charlotte Hellekant sings ‘Da, vspomnila... Podrugi milie’ (Yes, I remember! Dear friends) from the opera Pikovaya Dama at La Monnaie / De Munt. Liza's best friend Pauline may play a small part in the story of Pikovaya Dama, but her heartbreaking aria is another showstopper. Pauline sings wistfully about the carefree youth of a shepherdess, and how that Arcadian idyll came to an abrupt end after her marriage. ‘Love promised me happiness, but [it became] a grave, a grave, a grave’. The parallels with Liza's doubts about her upcoming marriage to Yeletsky soon become apparent.

Hermann (Dmitry Golovnin) is haunted by the spectacle of the countess’ corpse and begins to hallucinate: as the funeral mass is sung, the ghost of the countess suddenly appears. She entrusts him with the coveted combination (the three, the seven, the ace) and asks him to save Liza. Madness on a bed of haunting choruses. A hallucinating Hermann hears a requiem in the distance and is close to a mental breakdown. The frenzied bow strokes of the violins, the flute arpeggios: something is racing, outside and in.