Scottish Ballet – The Scandal at Mayerling

The year is 1889 and, in the woods outside Vienna, the Empire must hide a terrible secret. At the royal Mayerling hunting lodge, Crown Prince Rudolf is found shot dead alongside his teenage mistress. We rewind the clock to watch this desperate young man, the heir to the throne, plunge into his own paranoia. Trapped by the stifling opulence of the Habsburg court, Rudolf’s mental turmoil envelops all those around him. In a series of increasingly intense duets with his mother, his wife, and his mistress, Mary, Rudolf descends deeper into his obsession with death, and hurtles towards tragedy. Rudolf’s morbid fascination, sexual appetite and ultimate violence make this real-life anti-hero as compelling as Hamlet, while Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s breathtaking choreography takes us on a physical and emotional rollercoaster. The sweeping intensity of the ballet is matched by the sumptuous music of Franz Liszt, performed live by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra.