The Enchantress (opera)

The Enchantress (or The Sorceress, Russian: Чародейка, Charodéyka) is an opera in four acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky based on the libretto by Ippolit Shpazhinsky, using his drama with the same title. The opera was composed between September 1885 and May 1887 in Maidanovo, Russia, and was first performed in St Petersburg in 1887.

Ippolit Shpazhinsky's play The Enchantress was first produced in 1884 at the Maly Theatre in Moscow, and soon it had seen more performances than any other play being staged in Moscow or St Petersburg. The actresses Maria Yermolova and Maria Savina were prominent in the title role of Nastasya ("Kuma").Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky admired The Enchantress and one scene in particular. He pointed it out to his brother the composer, who proceeded to write a duet based on that scene. Pyotr saw the play himself in January 1885, after which he wrote to Shpazhinsky, asking him to convert the drama to an opera libretto. Shpazhinsky agreed, and the two men met that month to discuss the project, but the librettist's work was delayed by his divorce proceedings. When the libretto was finally completed in August, it was far too long and Tchaikovsky had to radically cut it. Even so, this opera was still the longest work he ever wrote.

The world premiere was given on 1 November 1887 [OS October 20] at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg conducted by the composer and with stage direction by Osip Palechek (Josef Paleček), set designs by Mikhail Bocharov; and costume designs by E. Ponomaryov. After one season it was dropped from the repertoire. The sets and costumes were sent to Moscow where the opera received a single performance on 2 February 1890 [OS]. There was a second production at the Bolshoi Theatre on 25 January 1916 [OS], but this remained in the repertoire only until the end of the year. A third production at the Bolshoi in 1958 received 49 performances and remained in the repertoire until 1965. The latest production at the Bolshoi was premiered in 2012 A new production of Charodeyka directed by Christoph Loy opened the 2014/2015 season of Theater an der Wien on 14 September 2014 with Mikhail Tatarnikov conducting the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien.

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