Tchaikovsky’s Heroines & Heroes – Usher Hall

This concert comprises scenes from three of Tchaikovsky’s greatest operas, each with a compelling female character at its heart. Their stories of forbidden love echo the composer’s own heartache from living as a gay man in a homophobic culture.

In the aria Da, Chas Nastall from Act 1 of The Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc (Natalia Kutateladze), bids a bittersweet farewell to her homeland. “You meadows and trees, my foster children, you will blossom and wither without me.” The music, and the performance, are filled with drama and passion, contrasting Joan’s intimacy with her childhood landscape, and the bloodstained violence of the battlefield to come. I was struck by the resolute strength that Kutateladze brought to the character.

In a scene from Iolanta, Vaudémont (Robert Lewis) falls in love with the cloistered princess Iolanta (Lauren Fagan). When he learns that she is blind, he sings to her of the wonders of light. She returns the favour, describing the beautiful aspects of her own sensory world: thunder, the song of the nightingale, the scent of blossoms. “To praise God eternally, I do not need light.”

Tchaikovsky conceived Eugene Onegin as a series of lyric scenes. It’s a veritable soap opera of love and rivalry. In one scene, Vladimir Lensky (Lewis) faces Eugene Onegin (Josef Jeongmeen Ahn) in a duel. As they recall their past friendship, their voices harmonise, their closeness undimmed by their enmity. Onegin is victorious, but his torment is expressed through the turbulent piece of music that follows.

The excerpts were staged simply. The orchestra took up most of the stage, with the singers using the space in front. I am more accustomed to productions where the orchestra sits underneath the stage, and the movements of the musicians, bows of string instruments flying energetically, added a theatrical flourish, enhancing the storytelling in a similar way to dance.

The characters throughout these scenes seem united in grief, in many guises. In Tchaikovsky’s music, the deep ache of melancholy is transformed by the bitter torment of naked sorrow, and the lament for days gone by stands beside the hollowness of recent loss. Tchaikovsky wrote or adapted the librettos for The Maid of Orleans and Eugene Onegin; his brother, Modest Tchaikovsky, was the librettist for Iolanta. All three are beautiful works of poetry. I felt connected to Tchaikovsky, an artist who drew on his own suffering to create something beautiful. I hope Scottish Opera will revisit some of these works in their entirety over the next few years.

Tchaikovsky’s Heroines & Heroes was performed on 10^th December 2025 at the Usher Hall. Usher Hall | Culture Edinburgh

Reviewer: Wendy McEwan

Reviewed: 10^th December 2025

North West End UK Rating: