What can you miss if you don’t know what you’re missing? In his final opera, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky created an intimate swan song about knowledge, truth and the healing power of love.

Iolanta is blind, but she does not know it herself. Her father, King René, has created a false world, shielding her from anyone who might tell her about her condition. Simultaneously he hires a famous physician to cure his daughter.

When the knight Vaudémont enters the idyllic garden that Iolanta lives in, they instantly fall in love with each other. He tells her the truth about her condition, which awakens a desire within Iolanta to be able to see. But is she ready to view the real world?