Artiste: Katia Ledoux

When is The Nutcracker not The Nutcracker? When's it's mashed together with Tchaikovsky's Iolanta to represent the blind princess’ inner world in a dark interpretation. 

Lotte de Beer’s new retelling at the Volksoper reintroduces the element of shock into Bizet's popular opera. 

This is not Carmen, but then Wu Tsang's bizarre meta-work, originally commissioned by Schauspielhaus Zürich, is all about breaking ties with convention.