Tchaikovsky’s Operatic Counterpart To Nutcracker

Director Francesca Zambello recounts the story (in both senses) of Cherevichki (a/k/a “The Tsarina’s Slippers”), Tchaikovsky’s only comic opera, which is based on a madcap Christmas Eve story by Nikolai Gogol. (Zambello is directing a new staging of the work at Covent Garden.)