Die Zauberin

Opera in four acts
Lyrics by Ippolit W. Schpaschinski

In Russian with German and English surtitles


Tchaikovsky's seventh opera combines a drama of jealousy with political intrigues and religious entanglements. The plot revolves around an outsider. The widow Nastasia, known as Kuma, runs an inn outside the city of Nizhny Novgorod where all classes of society come together. She fascinates everyone with her desire for freedom. Mamyrov, a scheming clergyman and counsellor to the prince, accuses Kuma of sorcery and accuses her of immorality. He persuades the prince to inspect Kuma's inn, but she manages to win the prince over and ridicule his counsellor. While Mamyrov is fuelling the princess's jealousy, the prince tries to force Kuma to love him. But she has fallen in love with Yuri, the prince and princess's son. Kuma thus becomes the pawn of a dysfunctional ruling family and is eventually poisoned by the princess. The jealous prince in turn kills his son and goes mad. Vasily Barkhatov's production presents Tchaikovsky's rarely performed opera as a musical drama with highly topical accents that relate to the fate of artists in 21st century Russia.