Tchaikovsky: The Enchantress

Tchaikovsky's The Enchantress is rarely staged today (in the West, at any rate), but in the composer's lifetime this tale of love, jealousy and revenge in medieval Russia was regarded as one of his most ambitious stage works. This 2022 production at Oper Frankfurt gives it the deluxe treatment it deserves, with Asmik Grigoryan in the title role of the innkeeper Natasya and Alexander Mikhailov as her beloved Yuriy. Valentin Uryupin conducts Tchaikovsky's sweeping score, and Vasily Barkhatov's bold production probes its psychology: using surrealism and fairytale images to create a very Russian parable of love, society and art itself.