Iolanta and the Nutcracker

Synopsis

When Tchaikovsky premiered his famous ballet The Nutcracker in Saint Petersburg 130 years ago, it was presented as a double bill, as standard at the time, together with the opera Iolanta. The Volksoper Wien, being part home to the famous Wiener Staatsballett, under the helm of the new music director Omer Meir Wellber decided to present both works again in one evening, but not as two separate pieces, but by fusing the two works into one. Iolanta is a blind princess. A famous doctor can cure her, but only after she is being told about her blindness. Her father doesn’t want to break that horrible news to her. Lotte de Beer: “In her blindness Iolanta lives with a magical imagination of everything that surrounds her. The Nutcracker music and the dancers of the Wiener Staatsballett show us Iolanta’s world perception by her inner eye. But there comes a time in life, when you have to decide whether to remain a blind princess or to see the world in all its imperfection.” This production plays on the cutting edge of fantasy and reality, of being a child and being a grown-up, of opera and dance. In short: it’s a family-show to the core.

Additional Info

• No: A04050223
• Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• Conductor: Omer Meir Wellber
• Orchestra: Orchester der Volksoper Wien
• Artists: Olesya Golovneva, Stefan Cerny, Georgy Vasiliev, Wiener Staatsballett
• Production year: 2022
• Run time: 01:37:00
• Director: Stage Director: Lotte de Beer
• Producers: ORF, UNITEL, Volksoper Wien, Wiener Staatsballett
• Format: 4K