Language: Russian
Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

The Queen of Spades or Pique Dame is an opera in three acts (seven scenes) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on the 1834 novella of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, but with a dramatically altered plot. The premiere took place in 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The Imperial Theatre offered Tchaikovsky a commission to write an opera based on the plot sketch by Ivan Vsevolozhsky in 1887/88. After first turning it down, Tchaikovsky accepted it in 1889. Toward the end of that year, he met with the theatre's managers to discuss the material and sketch out some of the scenes.

The story unfolds in the czarist capital of Russia, St. Petersburg, during the later years of the Empress Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796. In The Queen of Spades, the beautiful city of rivers and canals is both a mystical place where elements of fantasy can burst forth at any moment and a very real, modern city that provides an opportunity to satirize contemporary society.

The Queen of Spades, is a story of love, jealousy and money, in which the game of cards becomes an obsession. The work is particularly impressive for its sheer scale, skilfully shifting from grand, representative choral and ensemble opera to psychological scenes of chamber drama. The glamour of a sophisticated elite meets the misery of the outlaw working class. Pushkin’s short novella became the starting point for Pyotr and Modest Tchaikovsky’s musical-dramatic psychogram of the two main characters, Herman and Liza, united by their fatalistic hopelessness and their failed quest for freedom.

Music
Tchaikovsky’s skills as a great symphonist and undisputed master of the ballet are apparent in the many superb orchestral touches throughout this opera’s score. The opera’s great vocal solos, most of them considered concert standards in Russia, are excellent surprises for American audiences, and notable for their diversity. Ensembles punctuate the work at key moments of interaction—most notably in the first scene’s quintet, in which each of the drama’s lead characters expresses fear of another character.

Director: Alexei Stepanyuk (Director), Valery Gergiev (Music Conductor)
Cast: Soloists, Choirs and Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre