The Nightingale / Iolanta

Igor Stravinsky’s first and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s final opera hail from two totally different musical worlds –

Le rossignol or The Nightingale - the first part, written 20 years later thank Iolnata, blends the magic of Impressionism and the tumultuous Impressionist idiom.

The omnipotent Chinese Emperor lives amidst excessive luxury, which binds, suffocates and poisons him by its affectation, and has no inkling as to the beauty of Nature and its creatures.

Stanislava Jirků, Roman Janál, Olga Jelínková

Luděk Vele

Václava Krejčí Housková

His eyes are only opened by a song of an ordinary nightingale.

Aleš Jenis, corps de ballet of the National Theatre

Aleš Jenis, Stanislava Jirků

Aleš Jenis, Stanislava Jirků

Yet the two works, so distant from one another at first glance, have much in common – not only their being based on fairy tales, but also the theme and, if you will, message, which is inherent to the genre.

Stanislava Jirků

Konstantin Andrijev, Roman Janál, Josef Moravec, Jevhen Šokalo

Princess Iolanta has been blind since birth and her father meticulously sees to her never learning of her affliction. She lives in a beautiful, enclosed garden and no one is ever allowed to mention light, colours or human vision in her presence.

Dana Burešová, Jiří Hájek

One day, the garden is entered by the knight Vaudémont, who falls in love with Iolanta and arouses in the blind Princess the desire to see.

Aljaž Farasin, Dana Burešová

Václava Krejčí Housková,
Dana Burešová, Yukiko Šrejmová Kinjo

Aljaž Farasin, Aleš Jenis

Aljaž Farasin, Dana Burešová

Although works by two great masters of global music, neither of the fairy-tale operas has to date been staged at the National Theatre, with Stravinsky’s Le rossignol only having been presented twice in a concert performance, in 2010. Our new production is musically prepared by the renowned British conductor Jan Latham-Koenig, who worked in Prague some five years ago. On the other hand, the gifted Czech stage director Dominik Beneš makes his debut at the National Theatre.

Aljaž Farasin, Dana Burešová