FIRST ACT: Scene 1 Madame Larina’s Garden

Madame Larina, Olga and the nurse are finishing the party dresses and gossiping about Tatyana’s coming birthday festivities. Madame Larina speculates on the future. Girls from the neighbourhood arrive and play an old folk game: whoever looks into the mirror will see her beloved.

Lensky, a young poet engaged to Olga, arrives with a friend from St Petersburg. He introduces Onegin, who, bored with the city, has come to see if the country can offer him any distraction. Tatyana, full of youthful and romantic fantasies, falls in love with the elegant stranger, so different from the country people she knows. Onegin on the other hand, sees only a coltish girl who reads too many romantic novels.

Scene 2 Tatyana’s bedroom

Tatyana, her imagination aflame with impetuous first love, dreams of Onegin and writes him a passionate love letter, which she gives to the nurse to deliver.

SECOND ACT: Scene 1 Tatyana’s birthday

The provincial gentry have come out to celebrate Tatyana’s birthday. Onegin finds the company boring. Stifling his yawns, he finds it difficult to be civil; furthermore he is irritated by Tatyana’s letter, which he regards merely as an outburst of adolescent love. In a quiet moment, he seeks out Tatyana and, telling her that he cannot love her, tears up her letter. Instead of awakening pity, Tatyana’s distress merely increases his irritation. Prince Gremin, a distant relative, appears. He is in love with Tatyana, and Madame Larina hopes for a brilliant match; but Tatyana, troubled with her own heart, hardly notices her kind relative. Onegin, in his boredom, decides to provoke Lensky by flirting with Olga, who lightheartedly joins in the teasing. But Lensky takes the matter with passionate seriousness. He challenges Onegin to a duel.

Scene 2 The duel

Tatyana and Olga try to reason with Lensky, but his high romantic ideals have been shattered by the betrayal of his friend and the fickleness of his beloved; he insists that the duel take place. Onegin kills his friend.

THIRD ACT: Scene 1 St Petersburg

Years later, Onegin, having travelled the world in an attempt to escape from his own sense of futility, returns to St Petersburg, where he is received at a ball in the palace of Prince Gremin. Gremin has married, and Onegin is astonished to recognise, in the stately and elegant young princess, Tatyana, the uninteresting little country girl whom he once turned away. The enormity of his mistake and loss engulfs him; his life seems even more aimless and empty.

Scene 2 Tatyana’s boudoir

Onegin has written to Tatyana, revealing his love and asking to see her, but she does not wish to meet him. She pleads in vain with her unsuspecting husband not to leave her alone this evening. Onegin comes and declares his love for her. In spite of her emotional turmoil, Tatyana realises that Onegin’s change of heart has come too late. Before his eyes, she tears up his letter and orders him to leave her forever.

The ballet of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.

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The Hungarian State Opera House is one the most splendid examples of the Neorenaissance architecture.

The Hungarian State Opera House was built by Mikls Ybl from 1875 to 1884 and it is a richly-decorated building. It is considered as one of the masterpieces of Ybl.

Its neo-renaissaince building, with elements of Baroque, beautifully ornamented with paintings and sculptures by Bertalan Szkely, Mr Than and Kroly Lotz, is counted amongst the most beautiful opera houses in the world.

The Austrian composer Gustav Mahler was director in Budapest from 1888 to 1891.

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The ballet by Gyula Harangozó Jr. and Tibor Kocsák remains faithful to the finest traditions of the Brothers Grimm.

Act 1: Scene 1

The wicked stepmother forces Snow White to work. The servants gladly assist her. When the cleaning is finished the huntsman gives Snow White a white dove as a present. At the sinister arrival of the stepmother everyone disappears. The Prince arrives and instantly falls in love with Snow White. With great difficulty the young couple manage to stay together. Her heart full of fearsome hatred, the wicked stepmother is spying on their close liaison.

Scene 2

The vain Queen comes into the room in a rage. Her poison evaporates as she sets about her beauty treatment. She gets changed and stands in front of the magic mirror. The spirit of the mirror informs her that Snow White is the fairest in all the world. The stepmother flies into a hideous rage. She calls for the huntsman and orders him to kill Snow White.

Scene 3

On the pretext of collecting butterflies, the hunter tricks Snow White into going into the forest. He tries to carry out the Queen's order, but he has not got the heart to do so. Finally he runs away, leaving Snow White alone.

Scene 4

While Snow White is wandering in the forest, the dwarfs set off for the mine, where they dig for precious stones.

Scene 5

Snow White arrives at the dwarfs' house, which is empty. She is hungry and so she eats and drinks, and then she lies down to sleep under a large blanket - across the seven beds. The dwarfs arrive home singing. They are astonished to discover that someone has been in their house. When Snow White moves in the bed they become terrified, but after the first scare they soon make friends with her and take her to their hearts.

Act 2: Scene 1

The stepmother is once again standing in front of the magic mirror. The spirit of the mirror shows her that Snow White is living happily in the dwarfs' house. The wicked Queen flies into a hideous rage and enlists the assistance of some monsters in brewing a magic potion. When she drinks it, the stepmother turns into an old woman selling apples. She poisons the most attractive red apple and goes out.

Scene 2

The dwarfs set off for work, leaving Snow White alone. A short time later the old woman arrives. She asks for some water and, as a token of her gratitude, gives the most attractive apple to the girl as a present. Snow White takes a bite of the apple, collapses and dies. At the end of the old woman's victory dance the dwarfs arrive home, thirsting for revenge. They set off after the treacherous murderer who, as she flees, falls into an abyss.

Scene 3

Led by the huntsman, the Prince and his entourage search for Snow White. In the distance they hear the mournful singing of the dwarfs. The mourners arrive, bearing Snow White's coffin on their shoulders. The Prince wishes to bid farewell to his beloved. When he kisses her, Snow White comes to life. The lovers pledge eternal faithfulness to each other. A celebration begins. At the end the big Snow White book appears, on the first page of which the wicked stepmother is flaunting herself. Dopey finishes the story: he slams the cover of the book shut on the heartless witch.

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NOTE: Performance times can change at short notice, ensure to check up prior to performance.

La Fille Mal Gardée (The Girl in the Garden) is a Comic Ballet in 2 Acts and inspired by Choffart's engraving of Pierre Antoine Baudouin's 1789 painting Le Reprimande/Une Jeune Fille Querrillée Pa sa Mere.

The ballet was first presented under the title Le Ballet de la Paille ou Il n'est Qu'un Pas du Mal au Bien (The Ballet of Straw or There Is Only One Step From Bad to Good) by the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre, Bordeaux, France on 1 July 1789.

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Maurice Béjart’s dance spectacle satirises the often cruel (for the participants) procedures at ballet competitions.

At the competition in this ballet, there is even a murder. While the competition continues normally, investigations are commenced in the rhythm of a crime thriller through a series of flashbacks.

Six people who at one time or another wished Ada dead are under suspicion.

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The subject matter of this ballet is rooted in both Austrian and French history.

It tells the story of the tragic life of Marie Antoinette, the youngest daughter of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresia, who married Louis XVI, and became Queen of France, and lost her life on the scaffold during the French Revolution.

The music is taken mainly from composers of the time of Marie Antoinette.

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Recognising the talent of dancers, and providing them with the appropriate encouragement, is a major task of any ballet company.

This evening gives these exceptionally gifted young people the opportunity to try out roles in which they have not yet been able to appear in the current repertoire.

The works may be classical or contemporary, or pieces specially created for this occasion.

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For the stage adaptation of the 1865 comic strip of Wilhelm Busch, Edmund Gleede chose compositions (ballet music and overtures) by Gioacchino Rossini, a contemporary of the author.

Wildly successful upon its world-premiere in Munich in 1984, "Max und Moritz" has since been produced on more than a dozen stages, with over 1000 individual performances.

This work is now being presented in Vienna with a new choreography by Ferenc Barbay and Michael Kropf, two of those involved in its original world premiere.

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Choreographies by George Balanchine, Mats Ek and William Forsythe.

Premiere in the Semperoper on May 20th, 2011