Work of the Week - Rodion Shchedrin: Lolita

On the last day of April, the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden opens its annual opera festival, "Internationale Maifestspiele". The opening production is the German première of Rodion Shchedrin's Lolita, directed by Konstanze Lauterbach who was previously responsible for the overwhelming success of Massenet's "Werther" and Berg's "Lulu" at the same theatre. The title role will be sung by Australian coloratura soprano Emma Pearson and the Hessian State Orchestra will be conducted by its principle conductor Marc Piollet.

Lolita, based on Vladimir Nabokov's revolutionary novel of the same name, focuses on the fateful love of literary scholar Humbert Humbert (sung by Sébastien Soulès) for the 12-year-old girl Lolita. Shchedrin's stage adaption was premiered in 1994 at the Royal Opera Stockholm and the work is available in English, Russian, Swedish and German.

Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, who will be attending the first performance, has set many other famous Russian novels such as Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in 1972 and Chekhov's The Seagull in 1979

A second performance of Lolita will take place on 16th May and further performances are planned. Please check our performance calendar for more information and other exciting productions.

• Rodion Shchedrin – profile
• Website of the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden

_{Photo: Kungliga Operan Stockholm}