Past Production Reviews
1Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is always out for emotional overpowering. In his last opera "Iolanta" he went one better. You can hardly avoid the story of the blind king's daughter, whose blindness is concealed, but who is able to see through the power of love. Musically, it is pure Russian pathos composed by a great romantic in top form, who was also working on his “Symphonie Patétique” at the same time. GMD Markus L. Frank at the podium of the Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau almost revels in it. Without the protagonist ensemble getting any problems at all. Michael Schachermaier's production reveals right at the beginning that the whole thing is heading for a touching happy ending. Because the grown-up Iolanta returns to the place of her childhood, sees herself as a young girl who was wrongly persuaded that her eyes are only there for crying. Jessica Rockstroh's stage is a sanatorium, seems airy but confined. A royal retreat where no stranger is allowed to enter. Which of course happens. The knight Count Vaudémont, who enters here in a cosmonaut suit (with a supple tenor: Costa Latsos), falls in love with the sleeping king's daughter and tells her about the light. The king (grimly powerful: Don Lee) only wants to let him live if Iolanta, after being treated by the Moorish doctor Ibn Hakia (as a convincing stand-in: Valentin Anikin) will see. With Iordanka Derilova, Dessau has an ideal cast for Iolanta in its own ranks. The staging relies on subtle opulence: there are giant roses. The sisters' headdresses are reminiscent of angel wings. While the king and staff appear in everyday civilian or hospital garb, Ibn Hakia comes in a magic cloak, the knight as an astronaut and the original groom Robert (Dmitry Lavrov) as a knight from the fairy tale book (costumes: Alexander Djurkov Hotter). They are figures from the blind girl's toy suitcase, which suddenly appear alive in front of her. Iolanta sees, Robert breaks off the engagement, the king makes the intruder his son-in-law. The miracle actually happened. Schachermaier told the story (apart from the memory at the beginning) in a straightforward manner with a lot of empathy. In the end, joy triumphs over light. What would be better these days?
