Witches and Wizards

Rusalka is sad: she is in love with a prince who is not even aware of her existence. She would do anything to meet him and become part of his world. In desperation, she turns to the witch Ježibaba (mezzo-soprano Maria Riccarda Wesseling), whom she begs to transform her. Ježibaba agrees and sings Čury mury fuk (‘Abracadabra, white mist is rising from the meadows’), but in return Rusalka will lose her voice. What’s more, if she fails to win the prince’s heart she will be doomed for eternity.

Shakespeare's witches are also present in Verdi's Macbeth. They appear at the beginning of Act 1 to brag about their wicked exploits: 'Che faceste? Dite su!'

Told with some of Handel’s most delightful music, Alcina is the story of an enchantress (Máire Flavin) who uses her magical powers to bewitch the young knight Ruggiero and keep him captive on her island. But Alcina’s power depends on illusion and belief and, as her true love is revealed, her magical powers slip away…

‘Who can hope to escape’ the Enchanted Palace? At the end of the first act, the sorcerer Atlante has trapped all the characters inside. Singers, dancers and musicians wander through the labyrinth whose doors open and close to the rhythm of Luigi Rossi's baroque music.

Il Palazzo incantato has not been performed since its premiere in 1642. Music director Leonardo García Alarcón and stage director Fabrice Murgia breathe new life into this neglected masterpiece at the Dijon Opera.

The Sorceress (Renato Dolcini) and her witches come together to conspire against the lovers Dido and Aeneas. One of the witches, in the guise of the messenger of the gods Mercury, will be sent to Aeneas to persuade him to leave Dido and build a new city in Italy.

Masque of Might is the world premiere of a witty and satirical new opera which sees Sir David Pountney skilfully assemble Henry Purcell’s music to create a fantastical and thoroughly modern tale. In this extract ('In guilty night' from Purcell's 'Saul and the Witch of Endor'), Seer, Sceptic and Elena reveal to Diktat a vision in the form of a play, in which King Saul (tenor Xavier Hetherington) visits the fortune-telling Witch of Endor (soprano Anna Dennis) and learns that he will lose his kingdom.

Although Azucena (Clémentine Margaine) isn't a witch, her mother was burnt at the stake. She relates the tragic outcome of her attempt to avenge her mother’s dreadful, unjust death. Crazed by grief, a fatal error caused Azucena to throw into the burning pyre not one of the old Count of Luna’s two sons, but her own child.

Hansel and Gretel have found the gingerbread house in the woods and start eating it. They are so delighted that its roof and windows are edible, that they do not notice the Witch, who captures Hänsel to fatten him up to be cooked. Mezzo-soprano Bernadett Wiedemann sings 'Hocus pocus, Hexenschuss' from Humperdinck's opera Hänsel und Gretel at Hungarian State Opera.

The magician Klingsor (Károly Szemerédy) has lured Kundry to his castle and awakens her by recalling her past lives: Herodias (the princess who had John the Baptist beheaded) and Gundryggia. To retrieve the Holy Grail, he asks her to seduce the young knight Parsifal, to make him sin.