Paging Dr Freud! Iolanta and the Nutcracker at the Volksoper Wien

Mila Schmidt (Iolanta) and ensemble

Mila Schmidt (Iolanta) and Felipe Vieira (Nutcracker Prince)

Iolanta and the Nutcracker

Annelie Sophie Müller (Laura), Olesya Golovneva (Iolanta) and Anita Götz (Brigitte)

Olesya Golovneva (Iolanta) and Mila Schmidt (Iolanta)

By Mark Pullinger, 06 December 2024

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“something tells you this is not a festive Nutcracker for kids”

Reviewed at Volksoper Wien, Vienna on 5 December 2024

Tchaikovsky, Iolanta

Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker (excerpts)

Volksoper Wien

Keren Kagarlitsky, Conductor

Alfred Eschwé, Conductor

Lotte de Beer, Director

Katrin Lea Tag, Set Designer

Jorine van Beek, Costume Designer

Alex Brok, Lighting Designer

Orchestra of the Vienna Volksoper

Chorus of the Vienna Volksoper

Hedwig Ritter, Iolanta

Alexander Fritze, King René

Jason Kim, Vaudémont

Trevor Haumschilt-Rocha, Robert

Szymon Komasa, Ibn-Hakia

Katia Ledoux, Martha

Alexandra Flood, Brigitta

Camila Aguilera Yáñez, Laura

Stanisław Napierała, Alméric

Smelo Mahlangu, Bertrand

Gabriele Aime, The Nutcracker

Mila Schmidt, Dancer

Andrey Kaydanovskiy, Choreography

An empty glitter bomb: Aschenbrödels Traum at the Volksoper Wien

Chanda VanderHart, 4th December

A dizzying premise from Martina Eisenreich and Axel Ranisch, loosely drawing on Johann Strauss II’s unfinished ballet Aschenbrödel, which tries to be everything, all at once.

***11

Death, interrupted: KaiserRequiem moves at the Volksoper

Chanda VanderHart, 25th January

Omer Meir Wellber’s Mozart-Ullmann mash-up sounds like a terrible idea, but absolutely hits the mark.

****1

Ella Milch-Sheriff’s Alma emerges as a dark triumph at the Volksoper

Chanda VanderHart, 31st October

A haunting, musically compelling impression of a woman whose life was shaped by creation, loss, and unfulfilled thirst for personal expression.

****1

Femicide! A controversial Carmen from Lotte de Beer at the Volksoper

Chanda VanderHart, 6th October

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

****1

The subconscious at play: Lady in the Dark at the Volksoper

Chanda VanderHart, 18th December

Kurt Weill's musical, with its focus on psychoanalysis, makes its Austrian premiere in the city of Sigmund Freud.

****1

Brigadoon charms in Austrian premiere at the Volksoper

Chanda VanderHart, 4th December

Movement was so effectively utilised in this production, with elements of ballet, modern and Scottish folk melded in true Agnes de Mille fashion.

****1

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.