In Tchaikovsky’s final opera, the king’s blind daughter Iolanta gains her sight because she falls in love… although the whole thing is actually a bit more complicated… Tchaikovsky composed the music for Iolanta, Op. 69, to a libretto by brother Modest, during the second half of 1891. The Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg commissioned two pieces using fairytale motives to be performed on the same evening – a one act opera and a ballet; the latter was to become his famous Nutcracker ballet. Dmitrij Kitajenko leads the Gürzenich Orchestra in this live Köln Opera production.