THE SNOW MAIDEN

30.01, 14 & 26.02, 22.03
Hessisches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden, Germany

Duration 3 hours 10 minutes, including an interval

Premiere took place at
Hessisches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden, 30 January 2026

CREATIVE TEAM

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Composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Musical Director Leo McFall

Director Maxim Didenko
Set and Costume Designer Galya Solodovnikova
Choreographers Sofia Pintzou & Alexander Fend
Video Designer Oleg Mikhailov
Lighting Designer Oliver Porst
Choir Director Aymeric Catalano
Dramaturg Hanna Kneißler
Prompt Oliver Riedmüller

Musical assistant Holger Reinhardt
Musical rehearsal Julia Palmova & Adam Rogala
Evening Performance Management Marvin Mohrhardt
Stage Design Assistants Masha Dilger & Lena Mikulinskaya
Costume Assistant Annika Kuchnowski
Stage Manager Kenneth Pettitt

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CAST​

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Snow Maiden Josefine Mindus
Kupava Alyona Rostovskaya
Lel Fleuranne Brockway
Misgir Jaeyoung Ha
Tsar Berendey Richard Trey Smagur

Mother Spring Camille Sherman
Father Frost | Bermyata Young Doo Park
Bobyl Sascha Zarrabi
Bobylikha Aistė Benkauskaitė
Leshy Nathan Byon

Town crier Byungkok Hyun
Town crier Aldomir Mollov
Kupava’s mother Shirli Polena
Dance Saskia Lehm
Dance Valentina Ávila Hurtado

Dance extras Feras Zarka
Dance extras Frederick Brandes
Dance extras Duy Sandro Preuß-Feldweg
Dance extras Huy Duc Tran

Choir Choir of the Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden

Choir Extra Chorus of the Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden
Orchestra Hessian State Orchestra Wiesbaden

She grew up in eternal ice, and the cold can’t touch her. What Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snow Maiden wants, more than anything, is people. In looking for love, she learns that it doesn’t only overwhelm—it kills.

“The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka),” from 1882, is Rimsky-Korsakov’s third opera and one of his widest-ranging: from Russian folk tunes to finely drawn evocations of nature to a new musical language that his pupil Stravinsky would later pick up. The general music director Leo McFall and the director Maxim Didenko bring an undeservedly neglected score back to the stage.

Didenko grew up in Siberia; he knows what deep frost does to people. His “Snow Maiden” is set in a world at a climate tipping point—an ice desert whose inhabitants survive however they can. The research teams of Father Frost and Mother Spring put their faith in science and fight over the last green shoots. Most of the population, though, has slid back into the archaic: led by the charismatic shaman Lel, they worship anything that gives off heat, whether it comes from a generator or a bottle. Those who can afford it keep armed guards. And the odds are not evenly distributed: Tsar Berendey rules, with a small elite, from an underground bunker, while the people on the surface are left with private life—more important than ever, and love above all. With spectacular images, atmospheric video, and choreographed tableaux, the production turns a fairy tale into a science-fiction series.