The Christmas Tree

About

This production revives Vladimir Rebikov's 'musical-psychological drama', first premiered in Moscow in 1903. Rebikov sought maximum truth with no pathos or effects, asking the heroine to blur the line between singing and heightened speech—a 'musically psychographic' approach that foreshadows Schoenberg's Sprechgesang. Known for miniatures, Rebikov developed genres like melomimicry (between pantomime and song) for intimate expression. His chromatic language and dense harmonies were adventurous for the 1890s, anticipating aspects of Debussy. Despite its fairy-tale and Christmas surface, the opera grapples with adult themes—death, transcendence, cosmic vastness—and shows the imprint of Tchaikovsky’s late style. At the Mariinsky Theatre, The Christmas Tree appears among short operas for children, yet its emotional and philosophical depth also speaks to adult audiences. Following the composer’s remarks, the street scene’s set reflects the city of performance, rooting the universal story in a local image.