Movie Details

Many of Tchaikovsky’s stage works are unjustly neglected outside Russia. Now one of the most charming of all, Cherevichki (The Tsarina’s Slippers), comes to Covent Garden for the first time, under the baton of Alexander Polianichko and with an almost entirely Russian cast. Based on a Christmas tale by Gogol that mixes realistic village comedy with fairytale fantasy, the plot describes how Vakula the blacksmith flies on the Devil’s back to St Petersburg to request a pair of little leather slippers worn by the Tsarina herself in order to win the hand of his beloved Oxana.

According to the composer himself, the opera was well-nigh musically perfect. Judge for yourselves with this new production by Francesca Zambello, which brings together a huge cast of singers, dancers and actors, featuring The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet, choreographed by Alastair Marriott and led by Olga Guryakova, who shares the role of Oxana with Viktoria Yastrebova. With Vsevolod Grivnov as Vakula, Larissa Diadkova as his mother, the witch Solokha, and Maxim Mikhailov as The Devil.