Iolanta

Erica Jeal [The Guardian, 17 August 2005]

Double bills aren't what they used to be. Iolanta, Tchaikovsky's last, one-act opera, was conceived as the second part of an evening that would have begun nearly two hours earlier with his ballet The Nutcracker. Welsh National Opera's concert presentation, which has been touring on and off since June, paired it with only a few snippets from the ballet score - and the evening didn't exactly seem short.