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.
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker
Experience the wonder of New York City Ballet’s iconic holiday classic on the big screen. In George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™, Tchaikovsky’s beloved melodies transport the young and young at heart to a magical world where mischievous mice besiege a battalion of toy soldiers, and an onstage blizzard leads to an enchanted Land of Sweets. Balanchine’s stunning choreography shines amidst awe-inspiring set pieces, ornate costumes, and grand one-of-a-kind visual effects, like the one-ton Christmas tree that grows to an astonishing 40 feet.
Lucerne Festival 2017: Chailly conducts Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn
“What an evening. What a kickoff. The future of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra – it has now begun.” This is how Peter Hagmann of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung described Riccardo Chailly’s debut as the new artistic director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra last year. Chailly devoted himself in his second year in Lucerne to the works of composers that strongly influenced him during his conducting career. Among these are Felix Mendelssohn and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The program included Mendelssohn’s enchanting tone poems to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Tchaikovsky’s “Manfred Symphony”, based on the poem written by Lord Byron.
Claudio Abbado conducts the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra
The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela was the orchestra in residence at the Lucerne Festival at Easter 2010. Under the baton of their strong supporter Claudio Abbado, the orchestra once again reaches out to the audience on this special evening, spreading its lively enthusiasm at highest musical level, it is both famous and loved for. After a brilliant performance of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite Op. 20, the ensemble is accompanied by the young and talented Austrian soprano Anna Prohaska. The evening is concluded by a most emotional interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’.
RCO: Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla conducts Tchaikovsky and Weinberg
Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla conducts two works packed with folk tunes: Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, with Gabriela Montero, and Weinberg’s Third Symphony. The concert starts with music by Raminta Šerkšnyte. PRGRAM Raminta Šerkšnyte: De Profundis; Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Weinberg: Symphony No. 3
The Nutcracker – A ballet by John Neumeier
Ballet master Drosselmeier takes Marie to the court theater, where she dances in new pointe shoes with cadet Günther—who gives her a mysterious nutcracker. John Neumeier’s touching choreography tells the story of saying goodbye to childhood. John Neumeier’s choreography tells the story of saying goodbye to childhood and growing up. In the course of the piece, the childlike Marie not only discovers the world of theater for herself, but also falls in love for the first time and matures into a young woman. John Neumeier’s unique version of this classic is a coming-of-age story and at the same time a tribute to the legendary ballet master and choreographer Marius Petipa, who brought classical ballet to perfection in the 19th century. The Hamburg Ballet dazzles with virtuoso elegance and opulent imagery – a Christmas fairy tale that gets under your skin.