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 artistic director Lotte de Beer and music director Omer Meir Wellber presents both works again in one evening, but not as two separate pieces, but by fusing the two works into one. It’s a “successful debut that is also musically convincing” and the “two pieces intertwine like gears”. Jorine van Beek’s costumes makes it a “feast for the eyes” (Die Presse). “This imaginative ‘music theatre for the whole family’ enchants above all the numerous children and young people. (…) The Volksoper Orchestra once again demonstrated its power of performance” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). In short: it’s a family-show to the core!
Cinderella’s Dream (Aschenbrödels Traum)
Explore a fresh take on the classic Cinderella story! Inspired by Johann Strauss’s unfinished ballet, Axel Ranisch and Martina Eisenreich dream up a unique operetta that blends the original ballet’s history with a modern twist on the fairy tale. Cinderella’s Dream invites the audience on a magical journey of self-discovery, liberation, creativity, and the power of imagination. Martina Eisenreich’s music captures Johann Strauss’s artistic spirit, weaving in familiar motifs while creating a completely original musical world, which conductor Leslie Suganandarajah brings to life formidably: “The orchestra mastered the genre shifts in Eisenreich’s score, which elegantly combined Strauss, feel-good film music and twelve-tone echoes” (Die Presse). ” An accessible, entertaining, contemporary approach to the world of the Waltz King .” (Der Standard)
Im Weissen Rössl
Ralph Benatzky’s cult classic operetta The White Horse Inn, a romantic comedy set in the picturesque Salzkammergut in Austria, has enjoyed great success around the world, with countless productions on Broadway, in the West End, Paris and Berlin. At the Vienna Volksoper, Jan Philipp Gloger stages the work as a witty criticism against modern mass tourism while preserving the charm of the work, which lovingly pokes fun at German and Austrian sensibilities: “Gloger finds (…) a contemporary exuberance that makes fun of all kinds of things that deserve it” (Kurier). Annette Dasch “sparkles both vocally and comedically” (Kronenzeitung) as the snappy innkeeper of the ‘Rössl’ opposite Jakob Semotan, who sings her head waiter with “bright and balmy” tones (Der Standard). The rest of the ensemble is engaging and funny throughout, including actor Götz Schubert as the Berlin manufacturer Giesecke and beloved German entertainer Harald Schmidt, who delights the Viennese audience with his Swabian dialect as eco-tourist Prof. Dr. Hinzelmann – a great success!
Iolanta and the Nutcracker
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.