The success of this production is attributed to the unusual combination of the positive, romantic and lyrical story of Iolanta and the tragic plot of Bluebeard’s Castle.
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim of The New York Times summarized:
Happy endings in opera are few and far between - especially for women. Outside of comic opera, it is rare for a heroine to survive the final act; the price for love is usually death. Tchaikovsky’s one-act opera, Iolanta, is an exception to this rule. (…) It may seem cruel, then, to follow Iolanta with a performance of Bluebeard’s Castle, Bartok’s chilling psycho-thriller about the annihilating power of love taken to obsessive extremes. Yet that is exactly what the Polish opera and film director Mariusz Trelinski is doing in a double bill of these two operas.
The director himself sees the two operas as the story of one woman.
Judith continues the story of Iolanta – says Treliński.
Although the main female characters are played by different singers, common props and scenographic elements tie the stories together. Going back to his cinematic roots, Treliński applies the aesthetics of film noir and Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers. Boris Kudlička, the show's scenographer, created dynamic yet dreary sets.
The cast is also outstanding: Anna Netrebko stars as Iolanta, Mikhail Petrenko plays the role of Bluebeard and Nadja Michael – the role of Judith. Iolanta also stars Piotr Beczała, a Polish tenor nominated for the Opera Awards. Both operas will be conducted by Valery Gergiev, a Russian conductor and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg.