Archive Theatre

Opera Ireland bring Mazeppa to Monaco

2012-02-10 14:39

What: Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa
Where: Salle Garnier, Monte Carlo Opera
When: 17, 19, 22 and 24 February 2012

Set against the background of the battle of Poltava, in which Peter the Great of Russia defeated the Swedish King Charles XII, Tchaikovsky's opera is a dramatization of a famous poem by Pushkin.  Like his earlier work Eugene Onegin (also derived from Pushkin) the story centres on a young woman whose love for the Cossack Hetman Mazeppa draws her into catastrophe. To the poet's tragic tale of love and political betrayal, the composer added a subplot in which the young Andrei's unrequited love for the beautiful Mariya gives her tragic fate a special poignancy.



Lovers of Tchaikovsky will know that his symphonic poem Romeo and Juliet provided some of the best-known tunes for the opera, including that for Mazeppa and Mariya's second act duet. Containing arias and an orchestral score of incredible beauty, Tchaikovsky combines the sentimental tone for which he is famous with an epic grandeur well-suited to an opera of blood, battles and ambition.

This series of performances is a co-production with Opera Ireland, whose original performance of Mazeppa in 2009 won many plaudits including a nomination for the Irish Times Theatre Awards. The performances take place in the ornate Salle Garnier, the exquisite home of the Monte Carlo Opera.

Programme

Friday 17 February at 8pm: Mazeppa (gala performance)
Sunday 19 February at 3pm: Mazeppa
Wednesday 22 February at 8pm: Mazeppa
Friday 24 February at 8pm: Mazeppa