By Tchaikovsky.
I've left it far too late to give a fresh review of this.
Nice music. Decent cast. Crap production.
I saw it twice in November.
It's one of those operas that I sort of know but not very well. It's a great story, libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a Pushkin novel
tragic obsession to follow the burgeoning romance between a Russian officer and a young woman of higher class, through to his insanity and their suicides. As the drama slips increasingly towards desperation and despair, the score depicts the shifting moods through such contrasts as Prince Yeletsky's beautiful declaration of love to Liza and the haunted encounter between the mysterious Countess and Gherman, who blindly pursues her supernatural - and fatal - secret of the 'three cards'
To be honest, a great deal of parts with very little to do. Or is it just that the production does its best to minimise their importance. It was a pretty mediocre production. I didn't like the sets at all: the right side of the stage was a double-decker row of theatre boxes leaning backwards, and the back and the left of the stage was like windows, doors and so on. All in off-white. There wasn't much else of the set before the interval; whilst we were intervalling, they brought in a dirty big piece of polystyrene to look like a mountain of snow. It was rubbish, and they had split Act 2 in half to bring on the ski-slope. I thought the costumes were pretty awful. I suppose Ghermann's was okay for the character, and Prince Yeletsky's was gorgeous, but the rest were dire. And the personenregie was really not very good. Although Ghermann did a lot of pacing around being broody and depressed.
I suppose when you think of Tchaikovsky, you tend to think of those nice ballet pieces like Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker, or maybe the 1812 overture. So if that's what you think this is about, you're in for a bit of a surprise. That having been said, the prelude to the Third Act is rather reminiscent of 1812. And then there is the first scene of Act II, which is a long - overlong - ball at Prince Yeletzky's house, where Tchaikovsky throws in some music deliberately reminiscent of Mozart. And then there is a ridiculous pastorale which in all honesty ought to be cut, even though it did produce some good performances. It just did nothing for the dramaturgy.
A lot of the music coming from the orchestra is really powerful stuff. I don't think the orchestra was on particularly good form on either evening I was there. Someone there on another night said that it is about time that the ROH sorted out new principal cello and horn. I could put up with the cello but I agree the horn has to go. And in general, I was thinking that it's nice music, rather than nicely played.
The story is engrossing and compelling. A psychological examination of how one character falls apart because of his obsession in knowing the secret of the three cards. The countess holds the secret. she's told her husband and her her lover, and the third man to whom she tells the secret, who is driven by love, will be the cause of her death. Cut a long story short - here's the synopsis - there is no secret. It's random, and he stakes his entire fortune on the three cards - troika, semyorka, tuz. These gradually take over as an idée fixe from tri karti.
There are a few good arias in this, although only one that really stands out as an aria Ja vas lyublyu, or the Prince's aria, which is what makes this relatively lesser role actually a star role. On my first attendance I was not overly impressed with my lovely Gerald; on the second hearing, even though I still think it lies a bit too high in his range, he did sound lovely. I did ask him why he was doing this role; he protested it was a lovely role. I pointed out that it's not really a star part, and he said you can't be a star all the time. Sorry, Gerald, I love you to pieces and I want you to be the star all the time...
But it is so overwhelmingly a Tenor's opera and Vladimir Galouzine was stupendous. A strange voice. Robin Leggate commented that he is one of the three loudest singers he has heard in thirty years at Covent Garden. To be honest, I think he only does loud. Not a great deal of beauty in the voice, plenty of steel. And stamina. He moved well on stage, elegantly, sparingly, depressingly. And looked good, too.
This doesn't seem like a particularly positive review, but I did enjoy it. Tchaik was just a bit of a genius.
Gherman: Vladimir Galouzine
Count Tomsky: Vassily Gerello
Prince Yeletsky: Gerald Finley
Countess: Larissa Diadkova
Liza: Mlada Khudoley
Paulina: Enkelejda Shkosa
Chekalinsky: Robin Leggate
Surin: Jeremy White
Chaplitsky: Andrew Stritheran
Narumov: Krzysztof Szumanski
Major-domo: Alasdair Elliott
Governess: Carole Wilson
Masha: Elizabeth Sikora
Prilepa: Kishani Jayasinghe
Hermann: Vitali Tarachenko
