Stanislav Shvets

In Rigoletto, the deformed figure of the hunchbacked jester at the Mantuan court acts as a foil to his cynical and powerful master, an unscrupulous philanderer contrasted with his cruel and unforgiving fool. Rigoletto encourages and welcomes the Duke's conquests, pitilessly mocking his victims until he discovers that the Duke has abducted the one person he genuinely loves, his own daughter. As a result, the character of the court jester is transformed into a tragic figure who, in spite of his evident immorality and malice, allows us to sense the devotion he feels for his daughter and his horror at being destroyed by the same despotic world as that which he himself has helped to create.

Princess Iolanta’s blindness is a well-guarded state secret that risks sparking another war. When Count Vaudémont falls in love with her and offers to cure her blindness, Iolanta is faced with a choice: to continue as before or live her life in a way she has never experienced. Director Sergey Novikov moves the story of the king’s blind daughter to our own time when an overpowering wealth of information prevents us from seeing the true beauty of the world. Tchaikovsky’s last opera – at the peak of his career – was much acclaimed at the premiere in St. Petersburg in 1892. A year later, it premiered at Royal Swedish Opera, but the one-act opera has not been performed in Stockholm since then.