Il segreto di Susanna / Iolanta by Wolf-Ferrari, Tchaikovsky, P. I., Tue 30 Jul 2019, From (2019/2019), Directed by John Wilkie, Olivia Fuchs, Conductor John K. Andrews, Sian Edwards, Holland Park Theatre, London, United Kingdom

How well do you know your husband? How well do you know your wife? Newly-weds Gil and Susanna learn a little more about each other in Wolf-Ferrari’s delicious 1909 farce of marital mistrust and modern manners. Mozartian orchestral writing, a Chopinesque piano solo and an aria perfumed with the exotic fragrance of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune contrast with the turbulent Romanticism of Iolanta, Tchaikovsky’s final opera. A dark and beautiful fairy tale of isolation and enchantment, its blind heroine is redeemed through the love of the only man to tell her the truth. A romance as profound as Wolf-Ferrari’s comedy is light, Iolanta forms the second half of a double bill on the theme of secrets and lies. Listen to Iolanta Listen to Il segreto di Susanna