A Thought Provoking Combination

Iolanta and Bluebeard in high definition from New York,
reviewed by MARIA NOCKIN

The story of Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta is based on Henrik Hertz's 1845 play Kong Renés Datter ('King Rene's Daughter'). The play, which was enormously popular in the nineteenth century, was a fictionalized account of the lives of René of Anjou and his blind daughter Yolande. Fyodor Miller translated the play and Vladimir Zotov adapted it for opera. The composer's brother, Modest, wrote the actual libretto for Tchaikovsky's last opera...