Andrey Grebenetsky-Queen Of Spades Review (with revision)
Gambling Addiction Never Sounded So Sweet
I used to be an avid poker player. I would stay up all night learning and implementing the many nuances of poker. Eventually, I broke into poker’s top one hundred. I was planning to go to Atlantic City to test my skills, but then I saw the late Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s brilliant opera, The Queen Of Spades.
Premiering in the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1890, The Queen Of Spades is a deeply emotional view into the annals of psychosis. The original storyline, written by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin in 1834 was an economical masterpiece, numbering only ten thousand words.
The story follows Ghermann, the insane soldier who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful Lisa. He learns that Lisa’s grandmother, the Countess, was an avid card player in her youth. She knew the winning three-card combination in the game Faro and used it to win her fortune. Ghermann became obsessed over this combination and interrogated the Countess in her bedroom until she died of fright. She told Ghermann a combination, the wrong one, which he used and lost with, before promptly ending his life.
The story was so psychologically gripping that it caught the attention of Tchaikovsky, who composed an opera in a remarkable forty-four days. Sometimes, things just work well together and it was apparent last week in the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, when the house was brought down.
It wasn’t a single performance that shone through. The entire production incredible, instrumentals, vocals, storylines, and beautiful set design came together to claw their way towards perfection. Opera is founded on vocalists, and The Queen Of Spades had a secure foundation with Ben Heppner taking the reigns as Ghermann, the disturbed gambling soldier who falls in love with Lisa, beautifully rendered by Maria Guleghina.
The person who deserves the most credit is undoubtedly master conductor Seiji Ozawa, the Chinese opera juggernaut. Returning to the MET Opera house after a 16-year hiatus, Mr. Ozawa confidently led the MET orchestra to a triumphant rendition of Mozartian proportions.
Sometimes, our imaginations may not run as wildly as those of the composers, but thanks to amazing set design by Mark Thompson, nothing was left to chance. Every set in every scene looked legitimate and authentically homely. The skeleton of the set never changed and was a wall of columns on the right of the stage, with light shining through to the left. In an outside scene, it resembled a courtyard at sunset. Indoors, the light shone though like it would through curtains on a window. It is beyond this reviewer’s repertoire of knowledge to explain the brilliance of the set design.
Reviewer’s note: The quality of the vocals is subject to the performers’ health.
The Queen Of Spades stays at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center through December 13, 2008. Tickets ranging from $20 through $400 can be bought at www.metopera.org. This reviewer politely recommends you buy early as your desired section may sell out promptly.
