The scandal that rocked an empire
The Scottish Ballet puts on an epic play that’s centred around Crown Prince Rudolf’s suicide – choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, including a Franz Liszt composition.
The year is 1889, and the Empire must conceal a deadly secret in the woods outside Vienna. Crown Prince Rudolf and his young mistress are found shot to death at the royal Mayerling hunting lodge.
We go back in time to see this desperate young heir to the throne succumb to his own anxiety. Rudolf’s emotional torment envelops all those around him, trapped by the suffocating grandeur of the Habsburg court. Rudolf delves deeper into his preoccupation with death and hurtles towards disaster in a series of more passionate duets with his mother, wife, and mistress.
Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s magnificent choreography transports us on a physical and emotional rollercoaster, while Rudolf’s obsessive infatuation, sexual desire, and ultimate brutality make this real-life anti-hero as captivating as Hamlet. The exquisite music of Franz Liszt, played live by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra, matches the sweeping grandeur of the ballet.
This dramatic world premiere, reimagined and rebuilt by the Scottish Ballet, will be the first time MacMillan’s legendary ballet is performed in the UK outside of London.