PYOTR I. TCHAIKOVSKY
IOLANTA
CONTENTS
P.
4
SYNOPSIS P.
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THE ETHICS OF SPINOZA AND THE MUSIC OF TCHAIKOVSKY TUGAN SOKHIEV P.
14
“WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN?” EVGENY TITOV IN AN INTERVIEW
P.
22
“I FEEL I CAN MAKE A MASTERPIECE OUT OF KING RENÉ’S DAUGHTER” KADJA GRÖNKE P.
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IMPRINT
PYOTR I. TCHAIKOVSKY
IOLANTA LYRIC OPERA in one act Text by MODEST TCHAIKOVSKY based on KING RENÉ’S DAUGHTER Play by HENRIK HERTZ
ORCHESTRA
3 flutes (3 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes / cor anglais 2 clarinets / 2 bassoons 4 horns / 2 trumpets 3 trombones / tuba 2 harps / timpani strings
AUTOGRAPH
RUSSIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM FOR MUSIC, MOSCOW (except Vaudémont’s Romance, No. 6a) CENTRAL MUSIC BIBLIOTHEQUE OF THE MARIINSKI-THEATRE, ST PETERSBURG (Vaudémont’s Romance, No. 6a) WORLD PREMIÈRE 6 DEC 1892 Mariinski-Theatre, St Petersburg AUSTRIAN PREMIÈRE 22 MARCH 1900 K. u. K. Hofoperntheater DURATION
1 H 30 MIN
NO INTERMISSION
IOLANTA
SYNOPSIS Iolanta lives hidden from the world in an enchanted rose garden, protected and cared for by her nurse, Marta and Marta’s husband, Bertrand. She is kept entertained by Brigitta, Laura, and other friends. Yet, she senses something is not quite right and accuses her friends of hiding something from her. Bertrand and Marta explain Iolanta’s situation to Almerik, the royal arms-bearer—she has been blind since birth. Her father, King René, keeps her hidden from the world. Duke Robert of Burgundy, her childhood betrothed, is not to learn of her blindness. Even she herself is kept unaware of her condition. No one may speak of sight or light in her presence. Almerik announces the imminent arrival of the King, accompanied by the doctor Ibn-Hakia, who is said to have the ability to cure Iolanta’s blindness. The King arrives with Ibn-Hakia, the doctor, who examines the sleeping Iolanta and states that the princess needs to be told about her condition. The desire to see is a prerequisite for the cure. The soul and the body must be in harmony. Ibn-Hakia intends to wait at the castle until the evening for the King’s decision. The King cannot imagine revealing the truth of her condition to Iolanta. Duke Robert and his companion and friend Count Vaudémont struggle through the thickets surrounding Iolanta’s garden. Robert has fallen in love with another woman and seeks to ask King René to dissolve his engagement with Iolanta. Despite a warning sign threatening death to any trespasser in the garden, the two friends continue on and find Iolanta sleeping in the garden. Vaudémont is spellbound by the sight of her. Robert warns him, suspecting a spell behind the beauty’s sleep.
Previous pages: SONYA YONCHEVA as IOLANTA DARIA SUSHKOVA as LAURA MARIA NAZAROVA as BRIGITTA CHOIR & SUPERNUMERARY of the WIENER STAATSOPER
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SYNOPSIS
Iolanta awakens and is delighted by the strangers’ visit. While she fetches wine for them, the suspicious Robert slips away to call for reinforcements. Vaudémont unsettles Iolanta with his compliments – after all, he doesn’t even know her yet. The knight does not wish to pressure her further and asks her to pluck a rose for him as a farewell and keepsake. Despite repeated requests for a red rose, she continues to offer him a white one, and Vaudémont comes to realise her condition. He informs her about her blindness. He explains that one cannot fully appreciate the blessings of creation without seeing the light – “God’s first act of creation. Iolanta disagrees and points out her own rich sensory impressions. Yet, he has awakened feelings in her, and she desires to see what he sees. The royal court, the King, and the doctor call out in search of Iolanta. The King is beside himself to find the strange knight with her. When questioned, Iolanta reveals that she now knows about the miracle of sight. The King informs Iolanta about the doctor and the plan for her treatment. But when she admits she cannot desire something she does not know, Ibn-Hakia expresses doubt to the King about the possibility that she may be cured. The King resorts to a ruse: if the treatment does not work, Vaudémont will be executed for entering the garden against orders. After all, he trespassed into the garden despite the ban. Iolanta, determined to prevent this, agrees to Ibn-Hakia’s treatment. The King apologises to Vaudémont for his earlier outburst and for condemning him to death, acknowledging it was right to inform Iolanta about blindness and sight. Vaudémont requests Iolanta’s hand, but the King refuses, citing her engagement to Robert. Robert has returned and appeals to the King to free him for Mathilde. The King agrees and promises Vaudémont Iolanta’s hand, provided she is cured. Vaudémont wishes to marry the princess at any cost, even if she remains blind. Bertrand declares the cure successful. Ibn-Hakia escorts Iolanta inside. She can see. All give praise to God and the miracle of healing.
Next page: SONYA YONCHEVA as IOLANTA DARIA SUSHKOVA as LAURA MARIA NAZAROVA as BRIGITTA CHOIR & SUPERNUMERARY OF THE WIENER STAATSOPER
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LETTER
PYOTR I. TCHAIKOVSKY TO MIKHAIL IPPOLITOV-IVANOV* 24 Dec 1890 ... I have also received orders for a one-act opera and a two-act ballet. Vsevolozhsky is very fond of me and won't even entertain the idea of a season without a novelty from me. In this way I have unwillingly become an obstacle for the younger composers who would like to see their works performed on the Imperial stage. This torments and worries me, but the temptation is far too great, and I am by no means convinced that it is time for me to stop and make way for the younger generation. [...] No one knows better than I how important it is for a young composer to have his operas performed on major stages, so I would happily be prepared to make sacrifices if I had the firm conviction that a sacrifice could be beneficial. Suppose I were to turn down the commission for the opera and ballet. What would be the consequence? Three foreign operas would be performed rather than a new Russian opera by a young author. * Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859-1935), Russian composer, conductor and pedagogue.
SONYA YONCHEVA as IOLANTA, DARIA SUSHKOVA as LAURA MARIA NAZAROVA as BRIGITTA, CHOIR & SUPERNUMERARIES of the WIENER STAATSOPER
TUGAN SOKHIEV
THE ETHICS OF SPINOZA AND THE MUSIC OF TCHAIKOVSKY In speaking of Tchaikovsky and Russian music, it is important to realise that, from among his country’s renowned composers, he was the one to look consistently to the West. It was from here that his musical inspiration stemmed, drawing significant influence from Europe’s traditions. And he journeyed this continent far and wide: France, Germany, Austria, Italy… he knew and cherished all these countries. Yet, one composer from central Europe stood out as most significant to him: Mozart. And of the entire opus of this composer, one opera stood above all for him: Don Giovanni. Indeed, even at the time of his death, a Giovanni score was reportedly close at hand. Tchaikovsky’s connection with Mozart, however, goes far beyond mere admiration. There is a close connection in terms of rhythm, clarity of structure, precision of articulation, and the logic of phrasing that links these two composers. Tchaikovsky held Mozart in such high regard that he (without realising) sought constantly to mirror the wonderfully succinct and coherent
clarity of his idol’s musical message and ideas. How did Mozart manage to express the greatest things so simply, this most challenging of all artistic endeavours? How to follow him? Without a doubt, Mozart served as an inspiration for Tchaikovsky. What does this mean for us as interpreters? Quite simply, in performing Tchaikovsky’s works, we must select a suitable Mozart-inspired approach, regardless of whether it is operas, symphonies, concerts, or chamber music. At times, especially with older recordings, one notices a sentimental overtone in his music. But that’s not Tchaikovsky. There’s no need for tears after every line! What touches us are the har monies, the melodies, the overall sound dramaturgy – not contrived sentimentality. Lately, there have been several changes here with respect to Russian interpretation practices. Reflecting on Tchaikovsky’s work up to Iolanta, it is noticeable that most of his operas do not end well. Central characters die, are murdered, love in vain, and despair. But then, with
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THE ETHICS OF SPINOZA AND THE MUSIC OF TCHAIKOVSKY
Iolanta, he discovers a new language. Why is that? Tchaikovsky, from a young age, was a person of deep religious conviction and was raised in a faith-driven environment, which is clearly reflected in his wonderful sacred music. But then he comes across Spinoza’s Ethics – we know from his library of a copy of this book, furnished by the composer with numerous annotations. In this Ethics, Spinoza presents what was then a revolutionary conceptual model of universality, which opposed the prevailing dualistic thinking that separated God and humans, nature and person, good and evil. Under the sway of this eminent and audacious philoso pher, Tchaikovsky created his opera, which, despite centring on a duality of two realms – internal and external – regards them both as universal elements. Thus, there is the inner world of Iolanta and the surrounding one – both, however, belong together and cannot be separated. Thus, we observe that Tchaikovsky not only recounted the tale of a blind woman but also grappled with profound philosophical issues relating to the full scope and essence of humanity. Incidentally, this is also one of the main challenges for the performers of this opera: it’s not just about presenting a straightforward, tangible storyline but also about reaching into the philosophical, indeed, even the metaphysical. The transition from the dual to the universal runs through the entire work, especially in matters of belief: Iolanta gives thanks to the Christian God, while the doctor Ibn-Hakia praises the greatness of Allah. Despite being distinct religions, some unifying element is highlighted. A striking musical example in which
Tchaikovsky embodies this idea of duality and universality can be found in the scene where Vaudémont first sees Iolanta. We hear the same melody twice but in different modes. Initially, in a minor key, Vaudémont does not know who Iolanta is, perhaps a sorceress? He hesitates. And then, switching to major, he recognises her as a person. Two tonal identities – but one melody. What always fascinates me are the details with which Tchaikovsky enriched Iolanta: countless layers to be explored, even if they are insignificant to the basic plot. To provide one example, in the crucial scene where Vaudémont realises that Iolanta is blind, he asks her to hand him a red rose – she hands him a white one. The simple answer is that she is blind. Yet, I notice another facet related to the historical characters at the core of the opera. Namely, the mention of white and red roses instantly reminds us of the Wars of the Roses – and indeed, Margarete, Iolanta’s elder sister, became the wife of King Henry VI of England, who was there at the onset of the Wars of the Roses. Tchaikovsky took this nuance from Henrik Hertz’s dramatic source, not because it matters to the plot but because he was intrigued by the ambiguities, multiple interpretations, and the broader, universal contexts. And thus, we return to the musical language of Tchaikovsky in Iolanta. Another vivid example: according to the libretto, the plot takes place in the 15th century and is, as noted, grounded in real historical events. In contrast to his Maid of Orleans, where he incorporated near-direct quotations from historical minstrel songs to create a historical atmosphere, Tchaikovsky
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THE ETHICS OF SPINOZA AND THE MUSIC OF TCHAIKOVSKY
used no musical quotations from earlier times in Iolanta. The appeal of historicising effects no longer held his interest. Instead, he sought a multidimensional, comprehensive narrative approach – one that was more symbolist than realistic or descriptive. We see this reflected in the evocations of nature as well. Tchaikovsky avoided imitating natural sounds, such as a cuckoo’s call. Instead, he sought to evoke a sense of nature – an impression that resonates with our own experiences and reawakens them within us. The hunting horns, too, are not to be understood as a literal representation but rather serve as a symbol for the aristocracy, for whom hunting was a pastime, in the sense of, “Listen up, here comes someone important!” Mood, rather than depiction. Tchaikovsky does exactly the same right at the start of the opera. In the introduction, we hear something that would have been entirely novel at the time – wind instruments alone are used to evoke a sombre atmosphere! This reflects Iolanta’s existence. We hear her doubts and sense that she lives in a world entirely her own, isolated and enclosed. Yet immediately after, the tone is entirely different: we hear the princess’ cheerful companions, experiencing – through solo strings and harps – the ambience of a beautiful garden filled with all kinds of flowers, a peaceful setting, an idyll. Once more, it’s not about musical nota-
tion but about evoking an emotion. It is known that Vaudémont was called Tristan in the theatrical version, and indeed, many find themselves, in the opening bars of Iolanta, reminded of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. Yet, it is not a direct reference. I am more inclined to believe that Tchaikovsky, like all his contemporaries, was inspired by Richard Wagner, be it knowingly or not. Despite positioning himself in opposition to Wagner, he could not entirely escape his musical influence. Perhaps, then, it is more of a musical-emotional association – a colour that Tchaikovsky, albeit unintentionally, drew from the vast world of Tristan without making any direct allusion to it. Similarly, the leitmotif employed by Tchaikovsky differed from that of Wagner. For Tchaikovsky, it seemed too direct – he wanted instead to develop a character musically over the course of the entire opera. Ultimately, the question remains: what can we take away from this opera? For my part, I perceive the passage where Iolanta notices that she believes in the light without having ever seen it as pivotal. It is only in this way that a cure becomes possible. This is something that applies to each and every one of us. We are all responsible for our lives and the pursuit of our dreams. To achieve a goal, one must sincerely want and genuinely believe!
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LETTER
PYOTR I. TCHAIKOVSKY TO MODEST TCHAIKOVSKY Rouen, 15 April 1891 The main cause of my despair lay in the futility of my endeavours to work. I could not achieve anything but rubbish. At the same time, Nutcracker and King René's Daughter have grown into a terrible feverish nightmare and are now so hateful to me that I cannot even express it. I was simply tormented by the realisation of the impossibility of carrying out the task well. And the prospect of constant pressure during the trip to America* and there and after my return has become a looming spectre for me. It is difficult to express what I felt, I only know that I have never been so unhappy. My compositional woes were compounded by the homesickness that I had anticipated, and which never spares me when I am away from Russia. At last, I decided tonight that things could not go on like this, and in the morning, I wrote a letter to Vsevolozhsky asking him not to be angry with me for not finishing the opera and ballet until the 1892–93 season. Now I have relieved myself of this burden. Indeed, why should I torture and rape myself? Could anything good come of it? I have already reached the point where I hate King René's Daughter. By rights, I should love her. In a word, I must travel to America without having work on my hands, otherwise I might go mad. I'm already so nervous that I'm trembling feverishly as I write to you. No, to hell with the rape, haste and moral torture!!! I feel that I can make a masterpiece out of King René's Daughter – but only under different circumstances.
* Tchaikovsky had scheduled an extended concert tour in the U.S.A. from April 26 to May 21. Ivan A. Vsevolozhsky, head of the state theatres in St Petersburg and commissioner of Iolanta and The Nutcracker, accepted to postpone the première to the following season, hence the later date of the première.
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NIKOLAUS STENITZER IN AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR EVGENY TITOV
“WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN?” ns
What were your initial impres sions on listening to Iolanta? et To begin with, and in terms of my musical appreciation, I found it fantastic and also quite intriguing to produce an opera in my mother tongue. It’s different when you really understand every word while listening. And then it struck me as very “Tchaikovsky”, however strange that might seem. That there are really, really wonderful arias. Among them was a surprise: the opening line of Robert’s aria, “Kto mozhet sravnit’sya s Matil’doy moyey” (“Who can compare with my Matilda”), has turned into a widely quoted phrase in Russia, taking on a life of its own. People use it as a saying, no longer aware of its context. ns Like the German “Mein lieber Schwan” (My dear swan)? et Something like that. I was very surprised that this aria is from Iolanta (laughs). And yes, going back to the auditory sensations, it was an extraordinarily impressive finale. ns A good piece? et It’s certainly a good piece; it’s not an easy piece. Iolanta is such a straightforward story. The risk is that one has seen it and thinks, “I was in the theatre, it was like a fairy tale, it was nice, they sang, initially she couldn’t see, and then Previous pages: IVO STANCHEV as KING RENÉ SUPERNUMERARY of the WIENER STAATSOPER DMYTRO POPOV as COUNT VAUDÉMONT
he said: now you must see, and then she said, ‘Alright, for love I will see.’ A miracle, a miracle – she sees. So what?” ns But isn’t the journey from not seei ng to seeing quite compli cated? et That’s true. There’s an awful lot to it. But when I first came across the piece, I looked at the dramatic arc, and I asked myself, “What could I do with this as a director?” Naturally, the entire complexity of seeing and not seeing becomes quickly apparent, and one can understand what makes the play interesting. But my first impression might explain why this opera is seldom performed – not because it is musically uninteresting, because it certainly is –however, one is left wondering, how can it be staged in a way that is truly captivating? ns How does one do that? et I find it incredibly interesting now. We are so deeply immersed that I could philosophise about it for ages… but we also discovered many aspects during rehearsals, which took me by surprise. Sonya Yoncheva, our premiere Iolanta, mentioned something during practice that caught my attention. She stated, “Obviously, my father, the King, loves me. But he’s ashamed of me. I’m incomplete because I am blind.” I had never
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“WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN?”
thought of it that way before. In parallel, I worked closely with our René, Ivo Stanchev on an obsession with Iolanta’s blindness and recovery, simply out of intuition. I feel that, indeed, intuition plays a greater role in art than knowledge does. Yet, as Sonya put it so succinctly, it was one of those moments where I thought to myself, this piece is so complex, so refined, so diverse. In hindsight, it also seems entirely logical to me: the character of the King who cannot come to terms with a daughter who is not perfect – and whom he loves dearly at the same time. This is just one example of how rich this story is. ns Let’s stay for a moment with the character of the father, the King. During the initial rehearsals, you discussed the conflicts and characters intensively with the singers, at times in quite ani mated exchanges. The motiva tion of the King was among the first topics. et The father is totally fixated, so much so that he no longer pays attention to the means he uses to achieve his goal or how he acts. I think Sonya’s notion is superb in claiming that he is embarrassed. Psychology can work this way: you confuse one thing with another. I might say, “I’d like to be your friend,” only to later discover that I don’t actually wish to be friends with the person at all, but that instead, they remind me of my late brother. And so it is with this father figure as well. The boundary between his affection for his daughter and his other intentions begins to blur. ns What he thinks is love is actually something else? et Indeed, I find that aspect of this father figure incredibly intriguing.
Everything that is contradictory is fascinating. Everything that contradicts itself has substance. The greater the contradictions, the greater the intensity, and with him, this power and this force are both to destroy and to protect, but it is also so radical that it almost looks like a hostage situation, like violence: he gets on his knees and says, “You must help, and if you don’t help, I’ll throw you against the wall.” That’s really intriguing, unbalanced, disharmonious! He’s also a character who suffers because he becomes aware of his own mistakes. Tchaikovsky composed that into the music, too: the range in the King’s aria stretches from a depth that’s barely singable to a height that’s almost impossible to reach – as far as the high F. This is how Tchaikovsky expressed the extent of this character’s torment. It was incredible for me to witness: one works, develops jointly, discovers the character, notes a pattern – and then receives confirmation directly from the score, which is simply captivating. Certainly, one could say, simply examine the score, as it’s clearly noted, and there you have the character. But that’s not how theatre works. In theory, that’s all well and good, but not in practice. During rehearsals, one must grasp it psychophysically. And I found it so exciting to learn about it this way: as if you were just about to ask for directions, and then a sign appears, and you’re absolutely on the right track. ns We talked before the rehearsals began about how you handled the script very precisely, devel oping your direction from the text work. What you are describ ing now is also noticeable during the rehearsals: you direct very strongly from the music. You started out in the acting world.
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E VG E N Y T I T OV IN AN INTERVIEW
Where does musical intuition come from? et I suppose I’m not aware of that. I’m not sitting there thinking, “Ah, I get it.” It does something to me. Fundamentally, what is important is you are working on the piece, but the piece is also working on you. And the piece also has its own dynamics. The biggest mistake in directing is simply following what was decided at some point. Of course, it makes sense to do that since time is short. However, the piece also indicates where it should lead. And that’s what one must pay attention to – that’s really the most important, essential thing. And it’s insanely exhausting to always have this alertness, always this listening, listening, listening – it’s incredibly tiring and energy-sapping. But as you keep working and following the piece, something emerges, and you think: fascinating, possibly no one in the audience will get it, but it originates from the piece, it’s in the DNA, and that’s the nature of the work, that’s what I mean. I work on the piece and the play works on all of us. Something like what I imagined in our production: we had planned for a long time that there would be a pond and that we would work with Botticelli-inspired elements in the costumes. But then you rehearse for two weeks, and suddenly this idea comes up: after all, there’s also that painting by Botticelli – The Birth of Venus. And we already have the pond and we have the Botticelli influences, and suddenly something comes together that I had never thought of before. Then suddenly you think, I’m not in a production, I’m in a world that’s evolving around me, and it’s insanely fun, and you feel so free, and it is only when you feel free that things like what happened to us occur.
ns
What stands out in your de scription is something that can also be seen in your work during rehearsal: everything is driven by a great deal of energy, which transfers from you to the sing ers. It’s amazing that it works so well with everyone involved. What is your secret? et Yes, love. They need to feel that you mean what you say, that it matters to you, and that you genuinely love it. When they feel that you truly want to love them, that you really mean it when you say to each and every one of them, “We are now going to... you and I, we are going to... this must be so lovely with us!”...And if they really pay attention and they see that it’s not “fake”, then they are... ns Then then open up? et Then they say, “Finally!” Because even during their training, they’re always taught to be cautious, to protect themselves. But if you come in and can really do what I just described, then it really gets through. That’s truly where I start – I say, I love what I do, I love this, there’s nothing better in life. I can describe it with cake. I love cake, and there’s a big cake there, a Sachertorte, and you say, “Oh, so delicious!” And not: “Okay, let’s cook something and eat together because it’s time, it’s dinnertime. You know it’s seven o’clock, I know it’s seven o’clock, we have to eat, let’s cook.” No! You have to come with a big appetite and say, “This is our favourite dish! For you and for me!” not because we both signed something, and it’s dinnertime, and we’re not even hungry. No – we say: “No, this is a birthday celebration now!” ns Every day is a birthday? et Something like that.
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“WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN?”
ns It’s hard work, wouldn’t you say? et Hazardous Creating art is like sanding down a surface with sand paper. The faster you sand, the sooner you’ll disappear. The more sensitive and polished you are, the more beautiful you are, crafted from exquisite materials, the quicker... When you position yourself fully on the surface, in total contact, then you need to observe how long it can last. ns Given how you’re working, you can only sand very hard and very fast. et Because only then can the most beautiful surface be created. ns Now, let’s talk about sight. Vaudémont is the character in our production who tells Iolanta what seeing and light are. You once mentioned during a re hearsal that Iolanta might know much more about the world than Vaudémont. et She knows it another way. He asks her, “How can you truly know the world without the ability to see?” And she answers, “To understand in particular, to understand creation, you don’t necessarily need that sense.” One argument could be that it might even pose a hindrance. What Iolanta is trying to do, and what she is talking about, is perceiving things as they are, which is incredibly exciting. ns Why do you suppose she says right at the start: “I sense some thing’s not quite right?” And “You’re keeping something from me?” et There are two theories. Typically, I might say, “I feel I’m on the verge of becoming a woman, or I have become a woman; there is something within me, I don’t know what it is.” This then
emerges as love, as emancipation. I break away from the father and fully transition from a child to a woman. I am going from my father to my lover. In my interpretation, I’m attempting something different. I believe she says, I feel something isn’t right with the world. Marta makes a mistake right at the beginning – perhaps it’s not the first of such errors, but it’s the first that we see in the piece. Iolanta asks why she is crying, and Marta says, “How can I not cry when you are crying?” But of course, Marta shouldn’t know that Iolanta is crying. She had not touched her face. And Iolanta can only experience the world through touch. ns You’ve also mentioned other inconsistencies beyond merely logical flaws. et Yes, for example, when Iolanta asks Marta to sing her a song, and she says to Iolanta’s friends Laura and Bri gitta: “I vy sa noj pojte.” – ”And you sing along.” Iolanta immediately says that they would find it boring, and they protest, “No, no, no, how can you say that? But she knows them and senses that something about them is “fake.” Iolanta feels it. And then Vaudémont turns up – and he sounds perfectly authentic. He sounds completely different. He doesn’t say, “Do you want this? Do you want that?” but rather, he perceives her. And that’s why she falls in love with him. ns That means you’re interpreting what you hear – but also some thing more, something beneath the surface, is that right? One example that comes to mind is the flower chorus you staged with your choreographer, Otto Pichler. That doesn’t look quite as sweet as one might have ex pected after hearing a recording.
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“WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN?”
et I’m convinced that you don’t do the piece justice if you simply stage it “one-to-one” without considering the context. It wouldn’t just make for an uninteresting production – it would also make Iolanta seem unintelligent. Not alert enough, not sensitive enough. Not a complex person. ns But in fact, you portray Tchai kovsky’s Iolanta as a particu larly sensitive character. et Absolutely. And that also has to be reflected in how she experiences that moment. That perception comes from the piece itself. That’s important to me. Sometimes, we say on stage, “I’ll kill you,” and you don’t really grasp what that actually means. Then you have to pause for a moment and ask: what does that really mean? When King René says, “I have a great idea – I’ll motivate you by making you believe I’m going to kill your new lover,” and we see she actually believes it! How much damage has he already done to her that when she finally learns she’s blind, she doesn’t get angry, doesn’t say, “Do you realise what a jerk you are? You’ve been lying to me for 40 years or 25 years!” Instead, she says: “My father! You know, I’ve just learned so much that I never knew about you. You wanted to kill him – but it’s good to see you now – this is who you are.” Already at the very beginning of the piece, she says she feels something is being kept from her. And now she finds out what it is and reacts like this. What does that really mean? Those are the things you need to be perceptive of. And I think that’s what people mean when they say that I really engage with the work.
ns
You’ve just mentioned another keyword: perception. What’s also striking about your ap proach is that you’ve said the King wants his daughter to see – but he also wants to decide what she’s allowed to see. et That’s the paradox – it goes much deeper than you initially think. Iolanta is supposed to learn to see, and only then will her father no longer be ashamed of her. But if she doesn’t know the truth, she can’t see – that’s what Ibn-Hakia says. And that’s just a brilliant conflict: first being prevented from seeing, then being forced to see. I didn’t grasp right away what was behind it, but I had the intuition that this had to be the core of it. ns In the final scene, you have to stage this “she sees something, and possibly more than she should” against a massive final chorus thanking God. Has this choir sparked your intuition and challenged you to respond in some way? et Quite the opposite. I listened to music and thought, that’s the truth coming to you. What I heard was the shock, the act of falling to one’s knees before something brutal, anything but tender, but... something that breaks you. And then there comes a moment when it feels like the music is saying, this is it; this is the entire world. You can hear that very clearly. ns Again, the staging is born from the music. et Everything is in the music when the composer is good. One simply needs to keep their ears open.
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LETTER
PYOTR I. TCHAIKOVSKY TO NIKOLAI KONRADI* 26 June 1891 As soon as I will have have recovered in St Petersburg (work always tires me very much now), I want to start composing the opera King René’s Daughter. As I am strongly drawn to this subject, I feel that I am capable of writing something beautiful, the best I have ever written, provided that my musical and creative abilities are not yet extinguished.
* Foster son of Modest Tchaikovsky
KADJA GRÖNKE
“I FEEL I CAN MAKE A MASTERPIECE OUT OF KING RENÉ’S DAUGHTER” TCHAIKOVSKY’S ONE-ACT OPERA IOLANTA Tchaikovsky’s final opera, the one-act Iolanta, is based on the 1845 drama King René’s Daughter (Kong Renés Datter) by Danish poet Henrik Hertz, which Tchaikovsky first encountered in 1883 through Fyodor Miller’s Russian translation. Even then, he considered it a potential opera subject and revived the idea five years later after attending a theater performance in Moscow. But it wasn’t until 1891 that a commission from the Imperial Theatres prompted him to begin composition in earnest. “I feel I can make a masterpiece out of King René’s Daughter,” he wrote to his youngest brother, Modest, who wrote the libretto based on a Russian translation by Vladimir Zotov. The score was composed between July and September 1891 and premiered on December 6/18, 1892 at the MariinskyTheatre in St Petersburg, alongside the ballet The Nutcracker. Reactions at the premiere were mixed: the press was Previous pages: SIMONAS STRAZDAS as BERTRAND DANIEL JENZ as ALMERIK SONYA YONCHEVA as IOLANTA
rather cool, but the audience gave repeated applause and even demanded an encore of the duet between Iolanta and Vaudémont. The collaboration between the two brothers resulted in a very personal interpretation of the literary source, allowing the composer to deepen the dramaturgical principles of his operatic work – and for the first and only time, to guide the theme of love to a happy ending. A comparison with Henrik Hertz’s drama reveals three fundamental deviations. By adding the first three scenes, the libretto not only focuses on Iolanta’s cure from blindness but also on her path from childhood into conscious adult life. In portraying Iolanta’s father with more complexity and ambiguity than in Hertz’s version – even threatening Vaudémont with execution if her cure fails – the father-daughter dynamic becomes psychologically problematic
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“I FEEL I CAN MAKE A MASTERPIECE OU T OF KING RENÉ’S DAUGHTER”
(on a deeper level). Furthermore, since Vaudémont is not her fiancé, but rather a friend of the fiancé, the libretto explores various kinds of love: friendship, filial love, love as passion, as possessiveness, or also the idealised love between Iolanta and Vaudémont. In no other stage work did Tchaikovsky so explicitly celebrate love as an inevitable, divine force imposed upon humanity – one that is imposed upon us to prove ourselves.
MUSIC OF INNER EMOTION: SEARCHING, SIGHING, BREATHING As in the ballet The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky also uses rich orchestral colours in the one-act Iolanta to create a sound dramaturgy that not only evokes a magical fairytale atmosphere like in the dance piece, but also reveals the characters’ inner motivations. The orchestra adds depth to the characters and their actions, creating a space where their most profound sensitivities resonate far beyond the words and stage directions. The nuanced way in which Tchaikovsky works is already evident in the “Introduction”, where he uses exclusively horns and woodwinds. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the great master of orchestration, not only missed the presence of the other instrument groups here, but also noted with some irritation, “music suitable for strings is given by Tchaikovsky to the winds.” Indeed, the tremolo accompaniment figures in the bassoons and horns would be easier to play on cellos. The whirling scales pushing the music forward are originally violin figures, and the chromatic sigh motif of the cor anglais, which
floats on a bed of clarinet and bassoon chords and, bearing such a resemblance to Wagner’s Tristan, would sound smoother with strings. The pure wind ensemble thus clearly lacks grounding in a “normal” orchestral setting. But rather than criticize this un usual approach, we should ask: what does Tchaikovsky achieve by selecting only one group of instruments from the full orchestra – specifically those that, through the breath required to play them, come closest to the human voice and the human spirit? Tchaikovsky was a music dramatist through and through, and so it seems only natural to interpret this seemingly sparse writing as a subtle reference to the title character. The purely wind-based orchestration shows that Iolanta lives in a reduced world, deliberately sealed-off from the intrusion of foreign elements. Her world is missing something – just as the orchestral sound lacks the fullness of all the instruments. However, if the “Introduction” is not measured against familiar listening experiences but instead judged on its own terms, it reveals a rich palette of colors and expressive gestures from within: the wind instruments are capable, in their own unique, way of expressing everything that is typically associated with string music. Just as the blind young woman experiences the world on her own terms. Since she does not know that anything is missing, her perception feels complete to her. The audience, with its ingrained listening habits and learned expectations of sound, may – like Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – initially feel unsettled. But for those willing to engage with it, the unfamiliar orchestral colours sharpen the sense of
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hearing and open up an awareness for the unique way the title character perceives the world. In fact, the story of King René’s Daughter unfolds twice during a performance of the opera: once as a stage action with text, singing, and outward events, and a second time as an inner experience – purely through music – in rich orchestral colours, surprising soundscapes, and a purposeful musical dramaturgy. When the composer, in a moment of self-criticism during the composition process, noted that at times his new work contained “too little music – everything is an elaboration of the narrative”, it becomes clear that we must distinguish between what the audience sees on stage, and how the music adds a dimension to the “visible” action – one that cannot be grasped with the eyes or through ordinary senses. This shift in perception in Iolanta lies at the very heart of Tchaikovsky’s compositional approach.
THE FIRM OUTER FRAME: A PARADISE GARDEN OF WOMEN As if to underscore this contrast, the dramatic action of the opera begins with an acoustic “coup de théâtre.” At the premiere on December 6/18, 1892, the set designer, Mikhail Bocharov, had faithfully and picturesquely realised Tchaikovsky’s scenic directions: the curtain of the Mariinsky-Theatre in St. Petersburg rose to reveal “a beautiful garden full of lush plants, a pavilion in Gothic style, blooming rosebushes, and trees heavy with ripe fruit.” At the same moment, the instruments, too, seem to draw back the curtain: the woodwinds fall silent and give way
to a finely wrought but more conventional musical tableau of lyrical solo strings (stage music), harp arpeggios, and women’s voices. The comparison makes it clear that, for all its apparent incompleteness, the “Introduction” is a music of interiority – Iolanta’s inner world, which is as personal as it is open to transformation. In contrast, the paradise surrounding her is musically composed of pleasant-sounding set pieces. Here, everything is fixed in its assigned place. In this idealised but static outer beauty, Iolanta’s searching soul finds no resonance. In her “arioso”, full of unanswered questions, the wind section of the orchestra likewise fails to achieve a balanced interplay with the strings – just as the young blind woman herself cannot harmonise with the sighted world around her. Only in the lullaby at the end of the “third scene” – sung by the sighted to the blind – do strings and winds finally arrive at the usual musical balance. But the cost of this, however is that, in sleep, Iolanta’s yearning and the impulse for growth and change fall silent. Much like the stage character Iolanta, who senses a vague unease in her situation, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, too, reacts to the peculiarities of the score with an instinctive (and quite accurate) sense of resistance. And this is precisely where Tchaikovsky’s compositional artistry lies: through his use of instrumentation, timbre, and orchestration, he evokes an immediate emotional response. Even before any rational understanding takes hold, a feeling arises – a sense that something is not quite right in this idyllic world. The audience instinctively perceives Iolanta’s longing and solitude, her readiness for transformation and renewal, as well as the
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invisible walls that hold her captive in the ever-unchanging paradise garden. Scenery and dialogue alone cannot evoke this emotional insight nearly as directly as the music does.
MEN: POWER AND CONFLICT The scene with Iolanta surrounded by her companions Brigitte and Laura, the caring Marta, and the maidservants was added by the composer and librettist to the drama by Henrik Hertz. Such glimpses into an only seemingly harmonious world – in which the heroine, despite outward belonging, remains inwardly a stranger – can be found in almost every Tchaikovsky opera: Tatjana, who dreams herself out of her purely feminine family world even before meeting Eugene Onegin; Maria, who can no longer relate to the girlish songs of her friends because of her secret love for the Cossack leader Mazepa; and Liza, who in the opera Pique Dame may outwardly be a well-integrated member of society, but inwardly longs to escape the life laid out for her. It is from this fundamental disposition toward inner awakening that conflicts arise – conflicts through which the heroines either grow or break. Tchaikovsky also hints at this inner tension in Iolanta, first through the orchestra: following Iolanta’s lullaby, the “fourth scene” begins with horn signals, opening the ear to a world of hunting, military, and nobility. Cellos and double basses, with a restless tremolo, prepare for the entrance of men into the paradise garden. This contrast in sound also affects the vocal style: instead of the closed vocal forms that dominate Iolanta’s world of women, Tchaikovsky
now composes extended dialogues and, in the style of the so-called “melodic recitative”, conveys backstory and context of the plot. It quickly becomes clear: Iolanta’s life is built on multiple layers of deception. She knows neither of her blindness nor that sight exists at all; she is unaware that her beloved father René is the King of Provence, and knows nothing of the world beyond her garden. When René enters, the orchestra introduces fanfare motifs and drumrolls imitated by the strings: the lovingly concerned, protective – indeed, overprotective – father is simultaneously preoccupied with matters of state, military, and power. For the king has concealed his daughter’s disability not only for the sake of her inner peace, but also to avoid jeopardising Iolanta’s politically significant marriage to Robert, Duke of Burgundy. Yet this union depends on one crucial condition: a healthy bride. And so, King René places all his hope in the Moorish doctor Ibn-Hakia, who is renowned for his wisdom in the art of healing. Thus, two powerful male figures come face to face: the monarch, whose authority ends where nature has denied his daughter the gift of sight, and the exotic doctor, who places his trust in the divine harmony of nature and spirit. René speaks with Ibn-Hakia with words of fatherly concern and love. Yet the orchestra betrays the King’s inner conflict. The martial orchestral tutti in his first monologue reveal the will of the politician, whose restlessness stems not only from concern for his daughter’s future, but also for matters of state. As both father and ruler, René is not accustomed to relinquishing
Next pages: MONIKA BOHINEC as MARTA, SONYA YONCHEVA as IOLANTA DANIEL JENZ as ALMERIK, ATTILA MOKUS as IBN-HAKIA BORIS PINKHASOVICH as ROBERT
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responsibility – least of all entrusting his daughter’s fate to a mysterious and disconcertingly self-assured doctor. All the more so, since Ibn-Hakia sets one clear precondition for healing: an end to all deception. Only when the blind woman herself feels the desire for change, and when the father releases his daughter from his control, does Ibn-Hakia see a chance for recovery. The Enlightenment aspect that the Moorish doctor brings into the opera’s narrative is – unusual for Tchaikovsky, but entirely fitting for the work’s dra maturgy – closely linked to the idea of the stranger, the outsider. Without doubt, the composer could have written music in the spirit of the then-fashionable exoticism; yet, despite the references to Allah in the text and a few gently ori entalising gestures in the vocal line, his Ibn-Hakia is embedded in an orchestral sound world that is unmistakably Tchaikovsky. This invites comparison more with Mozart’s The Magic Flute, in which Sarastro embodies a similarly Enlightenment-inspired authority figure. Moreover, Tchaikovsky continues with the figure of the doctor a character type that is essential to understanding his operatic dramaturgy: in almost all of his stage works, there is a secondary character of dramatic importance who delivers a central aria. In this aria, an ethical point of orientation is articulated – one against which the actions of the main characters must be measured. Just as Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin and Prince Elezki in Pique Dame proclaim the ideal of devoted, altruistic love, so too does Ibn-Hakia proclaim the power of divine love – yet a love that must be trustingly embraced by the individual and transformed into an inner disposition.
At the beginning of the opera, neither Iolanta nor King René is capable of embracing such an idea: Iolanta, because she lacks even the basic ability to choose; René, because his pride as a ruler prevents him from true insight. The martial orchestral tutti that concludes the “fifth scene” makes clear that he is even prepared to take things a step further: “whoever uncovers Iolanta’s secret will pay with his life, and the doctor must submit to the father’s will.” The doctor that René has summoned is to heal Iolanta – or face death.
CHANGE The dramatic situation on stage is just as confrontational as the two musical worlds Tchaikovsky creates: movement can only come into this constellation from the outside. Thus, the “sixth scene” not only introduces the friends Robert and Vaudémont into the action, but also once again shifts the musical structure. Both the harp and string harmonies of the women’s world and the martial undertones of the men’s world possess a clarity and stability that Tchaikovsky now dissolves in favour of a more varied and fluid orchestration. Robert and Vaudémont have lost their way; they discover the paradisiacal garden by accident and ignore the warning sign: “entry punishable by death.” In a figurative sense, they too are seekers and wanderers: Robert, Duke of Burgundy and Iolanta’s fiancé, has no interest in a politically arranged marriage; he is in love with Matilda, whom he praises with vivid language and sensual longing. The contrast between his exuberantly direct feeling of love and Iolanta’s still undefined longing for life is unmistakable.
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“I FEEL I CAN MAKE A MASTERPIECE OU T OF KING RENÉ’S DAUGHTER”
Robert’s friend, Count Gottfried Vaudémont (in Henrik Hertz’s original text, he is called “Tristan Vaudémont”; Tchaikovsky’s music also refers to him by that name), is also searching for love, though he imagines it quite differently. In a “Romanze” added specifically for the singer of the premiere, he sings of an idealised image of womanhood – worthy of worship and pure. For this, Tchaikovsky draws on vocal intona tions that recall both Prince Elezki’s sincere declaration of love and the passion of Hermann in his opera Pique Dame, which had premiered just six months earlier. Musically, Tchaikovsky defines Vaudémont as an almost ideal combination of emotional depth and passion. By this point in the opera, it becomes unmistakably clear that the idyllic garden scenes are far more than mere lyrical ornamentation. They are directly connected to the dramatic action. By highlighting Iolanta’s delicacy, her thoughtfulness, and her sensitivity to kindness, generosity, and affection, they prepare the way for her encounter with Vaudémont. In their solo numbers, the two young characters sing of their longing to oppose something personal and different to the everyday life that leaves them unfulfilled. There are also compositional parallels: both Iolanta’s “Arioso” and Vaudémont’s “Romanze” – unlike the other solo numbers in the opera – are made up of two distinct large sections; the orchestral part, scored almost identically in both, is similarly shaped. In both cases, the clear metrical structure disintegrates toward the end, and the closed vocal line breaks into fragments,
making the core message stand out all the more clearly: Iolanta’s twofold question “Why? Why?” and Vaudémont’s repeated cry “I wait, hurry! Oh, come!” reveal their shared inner state of searching and yearning. That Vaudémont instantly loses his heart to Iolanta is thus logical. In conversation, the enamored young man comes to realise that Iolanta cannot distinguish colors and does not understand words related to the sense of sight. As he tries to describe what she has never experienced, he discovers that they both love the beauty of nature and divine creation, though they perceive it in different ways – and he understands that these modes of perception do not exclude one another. Unlike Iolanta’s father and the circle of women around her, Vaudémont does not view her blindness as a defect, but as something unique and complete in itself – something that can even enrich his own way of perceiving the world.
TRANSFORMATION: EXULTATION AND REFLECTION When Vaudémont is seized as an unauthorised intruder, both King René and the doctor recognise that fate has now decided whether Iolanta will undergo the healing procedure or remain in ignorance for the rest of her life. To intensify Iolanta’s desire for sight, René threatens Vaudémont with death should the treatment fail. Light, love, and hopes for the future now rise together in Iolanta’s consciousness, and at the same time are met with their opposites: blindness, sorrow, and death – all elements she had never known before. Love and
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fear for her beloved’s life lead Iolanta to consent to Ibn-Hakia’s treatment. In Henrik Hertz’s drama, Ibn-Hakia has cared for the girl for years and been preparing for a possible cure. Recovery is within reach, since Iolanta was not born blind but lost her sight as a baby when, during a castle fire, she was thrown from a window to save her life. But such details do not interest the opera dramatist Tchaikovsky, nor do the political motives behind the planned marriage. Right after the highly dramatic Pique Dame, in which every form of love and passion leads only to misfortune and death, Tchaikovsky celebrates in his one-act Iolanta the miracle of fulfilled love – love as a heavenly and divine gift capable of healing all human imperfection. It is no coincidence that Tchaikovsky began composing his score with the
duet between Iolanta and Vaudémont: these are his central figures; this is where his focus lies. The happiness of a lively, mutually appreciative relationship with Vaudémont allows Iolanta to step out of the artificial paradise of her childhood and, together with him, discover life and her full self. That King René at first tries to prevent this awakening but ultimately allows and supports it frees him from the one-dimensional role of the “superfather” in the Freudian sense. And so, the final chorus and orchestral tutti celebrate – in a jubilant march that is almost martial in character and echoes René’s regal motifs – that God has answered human prayer. Yet just before the end, the orchestra briefly pauses, as if to make space for individual reflection and to bow before the divine gift of fulfilled human love.
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SONYA YONCHEVA as IOLANTA
LETTERS
PYOTR I. TCHAIKOVSKY TO ANATOLY TCHAIKOVSKY St Petersburg, 19 December 1892 Dear Tolya, The opera and ballet were a great success yesterday. Everyone enjoyed the opera in particular. The day before, the rehearsal was attended by the Emperor. He was delighted, called me into his box and said a lot of gracious words to me.
PYOTR I. TCHAIKOVSKY TO MODEST TCHAIKOVSKY St Petersburg, 23 December 1892 ... Today is the fourth day that the entire St Petersburg press has been busy scolding my youngest-born. But I am completely calm about it - it's not the first time after all. I know that I will stand my ground in time.
Next pages: SONYA YONCHEVA as IOLANTA DARIA SUSHKOVA as LAURA MONIKA BOHINEC as MARTA MARIA NAZAROVA as BRIGITTA CHOIR & SUPERNUMERARIES of the WIENER STAATSOPER
IMPRINT PYOTR I. TCHAIKOVSKY
IOLANTA SEASON 2024/25 PREMIÈRE OF THE PRODUCTION 24 MARCH 2025 Publisher WIENER STAATSOPER GMBH, Opernring 2, 1010 Wien Director DR. BOGDAN ROŠČIĆ Music Director PHILIPPE JORDAN Administrative Director DR. PETRA BOHUSLAV General Editor NIKOLAUS STENITZER Design & concept EXEX Layout & typesetting MIWA MEUSBURGER Printed by PRINT ALLIANCE HAV PRODUKTIONS GMBH, BAD VÖSLAU TEXT & IMAGE REFERENCES This programme is based on the 2025 première programme. IMAGE REFERENCES Cover image: Brooke DiDonato: Unt itled, 2017. Cover image concept: Martin Conrads, Berlin. Performance photos: Michael Pöhn/Wiener Staatsoper GmbH. ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS by Paul Talbot. Reproduction only with approval of Wiener Staatsoper GmbH / Dramaturgy. Holders of rights who were unavailable regarding retrospect compensation are requested to make contact.
produced according to the Austrian Ecolabel criteria for printed matter (Uz24), Print Alliance HAV Produktions GmbH, UW-NR 715
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