03/01/2026
Meet the featured dancers from the Heartland Ballet's upcoming performance of Coppélia! Tickets are available now for performances at the The Grand Opera House-Dubuque March 21-29.
Coppélia is a charming ballet that audiences adore. It has been several years since the ballet was last performed in Dubuque. See Miss Megan's telling of the story to familiarize yourself with The Story of Coppélia.
Act 1:
Dr. Coppelius is a cantankerous old inventor who lives in the village of Galicia. One day, the villagers notice a beautiful girl sitting with a book in the window of his home. They believe she must be his daughter, Coppélia.
Swanhilda is perplexed when the strange girl ignores her friendly overtures. And she becomes angry when she sees her love, Franz, flirting with Coppélia.
The villagers dance a boisterous mazurka, and many couples dance flirtatiously, but Franz and Swanhilda continue to bicker. Village children bring out dried stalks of wheat to play a fortune-telling game. It is said that if you shake the wheat and hear a rattle, your love will prosper. Swanhildaâs wheat is silentâa very bad sign!
Youths gather the whole village to hear an announcement. The mayor has commissioned a bell for the village square, and any couple who chooses to marry on the day the bell is installed will receive a dowry. Everyone is excited, and many proposals of marriage are made. Franz tries to persuade Swanhilda to get married, but she remembers his flirting with Coppélia and refuses.
That evening, Dr. Coppelius leaves his house to have a drink at the tavern. Young men tease and harass him, and he ends up dropping his key on the ground.
Swanhilda and her friends discover the key and decide to enter the house to confront CoppĂ©lia. When Dr. Coppelius returns, he finds his door open and tiptoes inside. A moment later, Franz arrives with a ladder, determined to climb up to the window. If Swanhilda wonât have him, maybe he should propose to CoppĂ©lia!
Act 2:
Swanhilda and her friends enter Dr. Coppeliusâ workshop to find it filled with life-sized dolls! CoppĂ©lia, too, they are shocked to discover, is only a doll, and the girls laugh at how they all were fooled. Dr. Coppelius returns and angrily chases them all out, but Swanhilda is trapped and hides in a cupboard.
Franz then enters through the window and Dr. Coppelius is surprised to find the young man wants to marry his âdaughter.â He drugs Franz and brings out a book of magic. He will use a spell to steal Franzâs spirit in order to bring CoppĂ©lia to life!
When Dr. Coppelius brings CoppĂ©lia out of the cupboard, he doesnât notice that it is really Swanhilda. She has dressed herself as CoppĂ©lia and begins to move and dance as if the spell has really worked. She decides to teach him a lessonâand Franz as wellâabout loving dolls more than people. Just when things begin to get out of hand, morning comes, Franz finally wakes up, and Swanhilda confesses to Dr. Coppelius who she is and what she has done. The old man is heartbroken to find his CoppĂ©lia has not come to life after all.
Act 3:
The day of the bell has arrived. Brides and grooms stand ready to be wed, including Swanhilda and Franz, who have reconciled, and the whole village is celebrating.
The Dance of the Hours begins: each variation celebrating moments of village life that will now be ordered and guided by the new bell, including Dawn, Prayer, Travail, and Discord. Swanhilda and her friends sincerely apologize to Dr. Coppelius for their pranks, and all ends happily for the village of Galicia.
