Tchaikovsky: Iolanta – concert performance

Featuring: Hungarian National Choir (choirmaster: Csaba Somos)

René, King of Provence: Stanislav Trofimov
Iolanta, his daughter: Irina Churilova
Robert, Duke of Burgundy: Alexei Markov
Count Vaudémont, a Burgundian knight: Najmiddin Mavlyanov
Ibn-Hakia, a Moorish physician: Roman Burdenko
Almerich, armour-bearer to King René: Andrei Zorin
Bertrand, doorkeeper: Yuri Vorobiev
Marta, Bertrand’s wife, Iolanta’s nursemaid: Natalya Evstafieva
Brigitta, Iolanta’s friend: Kira Loginova
Laura, Iolanta’s friend: Yekaterina Sergeyeva

Iolanta is Tchaikovsky’s last opera, in one act in its original form. Presented in 1892, the piece is made unique in the 19th-century history of the genre by a dramatic concept and choice of subject which make it open to both symbolist-metaphorical and psychoanalytical interpretations. Valery Gergiev has already conquered Barcelona and Hamburg with the concert performance of the opera, which at the New York Metropolitan Opera he presented alongside Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle.
Irina Churilova, the young soprano in the title role, took part at several international competitions between 2008–2014, with great success (as in Toulouse, Verona, and Düsseldorf). She made her debut at the Mariinsky Theatre in 2013, singing the female lead of Gounod’s Faust. She is now the prima donna of the company, singing in fifteen productions, including such leads as Tatyana (Onegin), Liza (Queen of Spades), Aida, Leonora (Il trovatore), and Mimì (La bohème).