Tonight's Queen of Spades Met On Demand

[lennygoran]

We decided on the Met's On Demand tonight which was of a Apr 15, 1999 performance.


Conductor Valery Gergiev
Lisa Galina Gorchakova
Countess Elisabeth Söderström
Gherman Plácido Domingo
Prince Yeletsky Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Count Tomsky Nikolai Putilin


Elijah Moshinsky’s atmospheric production, designed by Mark Thompson, sets the stage for this gripping performance of Tchaikovsky’s passionate setting of Pushkin’s classic novel. Valery Gergiev’s idiomatic and authoritative conducting inspires a superb cast, headed by Plácido Domingo (Ghermann), breathtaking in his portrayal of a man unraveling toward suicide. Galina Gorchakova is Lisa, the woman he loves and destroys, Dmitri Hvorostovsky lends a superb voice and regal bearing to Prince Yeletsky; and Elisabeth Söderström is hair-raising as the old Countess. Olga Borodina is Paulina and Nikolai Putilin is Count Tomsky.

Run Time 2 HRS 51 MIN

We saw this opera live April 7, 1999 and enjoyed it both live and tonight's Met On Demand-we had Nikolai Putilin while I see Tommasini had Vassily Gerello. This marked our return to the Met after taking a few years off from our subscription which began in the 1970's-we were both retired and had more time. Regards, Len

Metropolitan Opera House
April 7, 1999


THE QUEEN OF SPADES {49}
Tchaikovsky-Tchaikovsky

Lisa....................Galina Gorchakova
Gherman.................Plácido Domingo
Countess................Elisabeth Söderström
Prince Yeletsky.........Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Count Tomsky............Nikolai Putilin
Chekalinsky.............Ronald Naldi
Surin...................Julien Robbins
Paulina.................Olga Borodina
Governess...............Irina Bogatcheva
Masha...................Heidi Skok
Master of Ceremonies....Matthew Polenzani
Daphnis.................Olga Borodina
Chloé...................Olga Trifonova
Plutus..................Nikolai Putilin
Catherine the Great.....Inga Rappaport
Chaplitsky..............Mark Schowalter
Narumov.................LeRoy Lehr

Conductor...............Valery Gergiev

Production..............Elijah Moshinsky
Designer................Mark Thompson
Lighting designer.......Paul Pyant
Choreographer...........John Meehan

Here's a review.

OPERA REVIEW; Met's 'Queen of Spades' With a Domingo Trump

By Anthony Tommasini

March 20, 1999



When a new production at the Metropolitan Opera returns a few seasons after its premiere, the company understandably cannot commit the same amount of rehearsal to it as when it was new. This probably explains why the performance of Tchaikovsky's ''Queen of Spades'' on Thursday night, the first of the season, lacked some of the dramatic flow and vivid detail that characterized this Elijah Moshinsky production when it was unveiled in 1995.

Yet this remains a powerful realization of Tchaikovsky's greatest opera. The orchestra under Valery Gergiev played with resonant sound and taut dramatic impact. And in singing Ghermann, the tireless Placido Domingo added yet another to the 100-plus list of roles he has performed during his career.

The opera has faced some criticism for the liberties the libretto takes with the Pushkin novella on which it is based. The story centers on Ghermann, an army engineer who becomes obsessed with wresting from a decrepit countess, known as the Queen of Spades, her secret to success at cards. Pushkin's Ghermann courts the countess's ward, Lisa, as a means to that end. Tchaikovsky's Ghermann is as obsessed with Lisa, in this version the countess's granddaughter, as he is with gambling. The opera has also been criticized by some for the amount of musical pastiche it contains, including an entire pastoral drama in Mozartian style.

But this production vindicates Tchaikovsky's dramatic choices and psychologically insightful music. Surreal elements lurk behind the facade of the setting: St. Petersburg at the end of the 18th century. Mark Thompson's costumes, in shades of black and white with oversize powdered wigs, are evocative yet eerie. The set, also by Mr. Thompson, is a picture-framed gray tunnel with sliding side panels. With the addition of props -- cream-white columns, gold doors, lace curtains -- it can be transformed into a palace ballroom, a music salon or whatever. But during Ghermann's lone wolf scenes, the space is grim, like some dank underpass to I-95.

The role of Ghermann, which Mr. Domingo aptly calls the Russian Otello, is his first in that language, not counting some roles from Russian operas he sang in Hebrew during his journeyman days with the Israeli Opera. He worked on his Russian diction with Ghermann-like obsessiveness, and it has paid off. Though mature-looking for Ghermann, he hurls himself into the part with an intensity that is ageless and sings with a power that seems almost dangerous. Yet, the plaintiveness in his lyrical phrases gives this pathetic character an affecting depth.

The Kirov Opera soprano Galina Gorchakova sang with stylistic authority, vulnerability and, at times, gleaming sound, though her voice was marred by wobbly pitch and stridency. The noble-hearted Prince Yeletsky, Lisa's suitor, is essentially a one-aria role. But what an aria, and the dashing, dusky-voiced Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky sang it magnificently. The superb mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina made another smaller role, Lisa's friend Pauline, loom large. The tenor Vassily Gerello was a suitably wily Tomsky.

The legendary soprano Elisabeth Soderstrom, who is 71, has come out of retirement at the request of the Met to portray the countess. Acting is crucial to the role, but scant singing is involved. Still, it took courage for Ms. Soderstrom to use the remnants of her once-creamy voice to create her portrait of an embittered old woman. She lacked sufficient terror, however, when the crazed Ghermann steals into her chambers and literally frightens her to death.

Overall, this engrossing revival shows the Met at crunch time in its season yet working at its best.

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/20/arts ... trump.html

[maestrob]

I believe I recorded that telecast on VHS, but sadly it's long gone now.

It was heartwarming to see Elizabeth Soderstrom as the old Countess: she's one of my favorite recitalists.

[lennygoran]

It was heartwarming to see Elizabeth Soderstrom as the old Countess: she's one of my favorite recitalists.

Brian I was surprised Tommasini said this: "She lacked sufficient terror, however, when the crazed Ghermann steals into her chambers and literally frightens her to death." The camera showed alot of her up close and I thought she handled the terror perfectly-go figure. Regards, Len