Three ballets in the manner of late Neoclassicism

Opera in three acts

Libretto by V. Burenin, adapted by P. Tchaikovsky, as based on the poem Poltava by A. Pushkin.

In loving the old Hetman Mazeppa, the young Maria condemns her own father to death and is herself doomed to insanity. Because for the sake of power, Mazeppa, the formidable leader of the Ukrainian Cossacks is prepared to sacrifice the feelings of his beloved woman and the lives of her relatives. The basis of the plot of the opera comes from one of the classic texts by Pushkin, which narrates the beginning of the Russian state under Peter the Great. Tchaikovsky first became enthused about writing the opera after visiting his sister, Alexandra Davidova, at her estate in the Ukraine when he saw a staging of Poltava. He wrote: «I felt touched by several beautiful scenes and verses and started by writing the scenes between Maria and Mazeppa, which transferred easily from the poem straight into the libretto». In Georgii Isaakyan’s production of the opera the key metaphor of the nails represents the souls of the characters, gradually bending under the influence of irrepressible power of the state.

 Age category: 16+