Stikhina and Clayton shine in DNO's uneven Maid of Orleans

Elena Stikhina (Joan)

Allan Clayton (King Charles VII) and Nadezhda Pavolva (Agnès Sorel)

The Maid of Orleans at Dutch National Opera

By Eleanor Knight, 16 November 2025

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“a uniformly outstanding cast was led by the transfixing Elena Stikhina as Joan”

Reviewed at Dutch National Opera and Ballet, Amsterdam on 15 November 2025

Tchaikovsky, The Maid of Orleans

Dutch National Opera

Valentin Uryupin, Conductor

Dmitri Tcherniakov, Director, Set Designer

Elena Zaytseva, Costume Designer

Gleb Filshtinsky, Lighting Designer

Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra

Chorus of Dutch National Opera

Elena Stikhina, Joan of Arc

Nadezhda Pavlova, Agnès Sorel

Allan Clayton, King Charles VII

Andrey Zhilikhovsky, Lionel

John Relyea, The Archbishop

Vladislav Sulimsky, Dunois

Gábor Bretz, Thibaut d'Arc

Oleksiy Palchykov, Raymond

Patrick Guetti, Bertrand

Ran Arthur Braun, Fight Choreography

Edward Ananian-Cooper, Choirmaster / chorus director

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Eleanor Knight

Eleanor is a writer and librettist. Her work has appeared in all kinds of places from the Royal Opera House to the foot tunnels beneath the Elephant and Castle roundabout, and she has written arts reviews and features for British papers and magazines. Having begun her working life in theatre, she switched to publishing and later taught creative writing at the University of Brighton and Birkbeck. Currently based in the Netherlands, she teaches at the University of Utrecht. Eleanor plays violin and sings, though not usually at the same time, and has recently taken up speed-skating.

A trial of two halves: Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans at DNO