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The Arts Intel Report

The Enchantress, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Dec 4–30, 2022
Untermainanlage 11, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tchaikovsky’s favorite opera! Written between posterity’s favorites, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, the score of The Enchantress is a big one (four acts, running three-and-a-half hours) of unusual complexity. As for the story, expect no synopsis here. Suffice it to say that the enchantress of the title has no supernatural powers. She’s an innkeeper who dances as fast as she can but has the misfortune to attract the notice of royalty. The soprano Asmik Grigorian, an enchantress in her own right, takes the title role, and who knows? Hers could be the performance that finally puts Tchaikovsky’s problem child on the map. (There are plans for a video.) —Matthew Gurewitsch