None But the Lonely Heart

24 song compositions by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky are combined to create an intimate evening of musical theatre that shows five characters and their contradictory emotions: repressed feelings of love are juxtaposed with the search for intoxicating moments; the grief over broken relationships repeatedly leads to withdrawal and loneliness. An interpersonal dynamic develops in which unfulfillable longings, repressed memories and emotional dependencies of the individual characters are revealed. In a poetically dense sequence of images, the production also alludes to motifs from Tchaikovsky’s biography, which is characterised by ambivalences. Christof Loy's staging includes rarely performed Lieder, interspersed with short works for piano and chamber music.

“I don’t know which singer to single out, they were all great.” Opernwelt

Musical Works

(in chronological order)

  

Dumka in C minor, Op. 59

(excerpt)

 

Reconciliation, Op. 25/1

Text: Nikolay F. Shcherbina

 

I never spoke to her, Op. 25/5

Text: Lev A. Mei

 

Text: Aleksey N. Apukhtin

 

Evening, Op. 46/1

Text: Ivan Z. Surikov

 

Say of what, in the shade of branches, Op. 57/1

Text: Vladimir A. Sollogub

 

Coral beads, Op. 28/2

Text: Lev A. Mei after Władysław Syrokomla

 

A soul flew quietly in the heavenly heights, Op. 47/2

Text: Aleksey K. Tolstoy

 

Amid the din of the ball, Op. 38/3

Text: Aleksey K. Tolstoy

 

Song of the gypsy girl, Op. 60/7

Text: Yakov P. Polonsky

 

On yellow fields of grain, Op. 57/2

Text: Aleksey K. Tolstoy

 

I won’t say anything to you, Op. 60/2

Text: Afanasy A. Fet

 

Sextet in D minor Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70

2nd movement: Adagio cantabile

 

after W. A. Mozart’s Fantasy KV 475 (Andantino)

Text: Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky

 

The Night, Op. 60/9

Text: Yakov P. Polonsky

 

He loved me so, Op. 28/4

Text: Aleksey N. Apukhtin

 

Why?, Op. 6/5

Text: Lev A. Mei after Heinrich Heine

 

None but the lonely heart, Op. 6/6

Text: Lev A. Mei after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

As over darkly glowing ambers, Op. 25/2

Text: Fyodor I. Tyutchev

 

Wasn’t I a blade of grass, Op. 47/7

Text: Ivan Z. Surikov

 

Text: Alexander S. Pushkin

 

Not a word, my friend, Op. 6/2

Text: Aleksey N. Pleshcheyev after Moritz Hartmann

 

Frenzied nights, Op. 60/6

Text: Aleksey N. Apukhtin

 

Final (Allegro vivace) from the ballet Sleeping Beauty

Piano transcription: Mikhail Pletnev

 

The sun has set, Op. 73/4

Text: Daniil M. Rathaus

 

The lights were going out in the rooms, Op. 63/5

Text: Konstantin K. Romanov

 

Again as before alone, Op. 73/6

Text: Daniil M. Rathaus