2 Awards for Iolanta / The Nutcracker

Dmitri Tcherniakov's "Iolanta / The Nutcracker" has been awarded the "Grand Prix du DVD" of the Académie Charles Cros, and the Diapason d'Or.

Bringing together again, for the first time since their premiere in Moscow, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and The Nutcracker, was the challenge that Russian stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov accepted for the Palais Garnier in Paris: a revolutionary production which was to become one of the key events of the Paris Opera season.

With great intelligence, Tcherniakov renews the dialogue between the two masterpieces, and reveals their common origins. He thus reminds us that both Iolanta and The Nutcracker are first and foremost initiatory journeys, in which the heroes experience love and loss, fortune and misfortune. In doing so, Dmitri Tcherniakov, with the collaboration of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Édouard Lock and Arthur Pita, goes as far as to completely disregard the magical extravaganzas that Marius Petipa associated to The Nutcracker, and turns the dream into a nightmare dominated by despair and loneliness. Tchaikovsky indeed scattered his music with a profound melancholy all too often overlooked, he who grew weary of the ballet’s candor when writing the score, and he who was bringing back, with the Sugar Plum Fairy, the memory of a recently lost sister…

Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva delivers an flamboyant interpretation of Iolanta, and shares the stage with tenor Arnold Rutkowski and bass Alexander Tsymbalyuk. French conductor Alain Altinoglu joins forces with the Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus, while the Paris Opera Ballet, among which Marion Barbeau– a radiant Marie – and the Étoiles Stéphane Bullion and Alice Renavand, reinvents the most popular ballet of all times.

Genre Opera + Ballet
Recording location Opéra national de Paris (Palais Garnier)
Recording date 2016
Duration 188 min. + 53 min. (Bonus: "Behind the Scenes")
Video format Color, 16/9, NTSC (DVD), Full HD (Blu-ray)
Audio format PCM 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD), DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (Blu-ray)
Director Andy Sommer
Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Original title of music work Иоланта
Original title of dance work Щелкунчик
Orchestra / Band Orchestre et Choeurs de l'Opéra national de Paris
Conductor Alain Altinoglu
Stage Director Dmitri Tcherniakov
Dance Company Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris
Choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Choreography by Édouard Lock
Choreography by Arthur Pita
Soloist Sonya Yoncheva
Soloist Arnold Rutkowski
Soloist Alexander Tsymbalyuk
Soloist Marion Barbeau
Soloist Stéphane Bullion – Danseur étoile
Soloist Alice Renavand – Danseuse étoile
Distribution DVD Naxos Distribution