United States Tchaikovsky, The Queen of Spades: Soloists, Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra / Keri-Lynn Wilson (conductor). Metropolitan Opera, New York, 23.5.2025. (RP)
The late Elijah Moshinsky’s production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, which was first presented at the Metropolitan Opera in 1995, has returned for five performances to close the season. Based on a short story by Pushkin, the opera delves into the themes of obsession and self-destruction against the grandeur of Imperial Russia in the time of Catherine the Great. It is a dark tale, driven by the sweep and passion of Tchaikovsky’s genius for melody and drama.
The opera tells of Lisa, granddaughter of the aged Countess who is rumored to hold the secret of winning at cards. Although engaged to Prince Yeletsky, Lisa falls under Hermann’s spell. Intent on discovering the Countess’s secret, Hermann surprises the old woman when she is asleep, first pleading with her and then threatening her with a pistol. The Countess dies of fright without revealing the secret, but her ghost appears to him in a dream, divulging it to Hermann so he can marry and save Lisa.
Unhinged with madness, Hermann comes to Lisa, and she realizes that he was more interested in the Countess’s secret than in her. Believing that all is lost, Lisa commits suicide (a particularly awkward bit of Moshinsky’s staging). Joining a card game with his fellow officers, Hermann bets wildly, winning the first two hands but losing the third. Instead of the ace, which the Countess told him was the third winning card, he holds the queen of spades. As the Countess’s ghost laughs in vengeful triumph, he shoots himself.
Moshinsky heightened the drama and tension by setting the action within a picture frame surrounding the proscenium of the Met stage. His color scheme is primarily black and white, relieved by the sparkle of jewels and splashes of red and blue. Massive Corinthian columns and the gowns on the women epitomize opulence at the masked ball. The Countess’s gowns are magnificent, as is the portrait of her as the ‘Muscovite Venus’ that hangs in the room where she dies.
Securing a tenor to sing Hermann posed a challenge for the Met, and it was announced just a few days before the first performance that Armenian tenor Arsen Soghomonyan would play the role. Brian Jagde and Brandon Jovanovich had previously withdrawn from the production. Soghomonyan has sung Hermann at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. He is also scheduled to sing it with the State Opera Varna in Bulgaria this summer with Sonya Yoncheva as Lisa, who was singing the role for the first time here at the Met.
Soghomonyan’s Hermann was unmoored psychologically from the start, and there was no doubt this story would end badly. There was little bloom in Soghomonyan’s voice or suppleness to his singing in the opening scene’s more reflective passages, but the tenor’s top notes blazed when expressing Hermann’s obsessive, self-destructive nature. He was at his best in the opera’s most dramatic scenes confronting the Countess, and in the final, frenzied card game. With his Met debut behind him, Soghomonyan’s portrayal will undoubtedly gain nuance as the run progresses.
Yoncheva brought an enticing mix of voluptuous sound, tempered with steel, to Lisa. Without ever straining the essentially lyrical nature of her voice, Yoncheva expressed Lisa’s torrents of emotion in arcing waves of sound that crested easily over the orchestra. Her characterization was equally refined and touching. Yoncheva is a superb Lisa in all ways, and undoubtedly the role will be her next calling card in opera houses worldwide.
In the past, the Met often cast the Countess with great singers at the end of their careers, with nostalgia and superb acting trumping voices dimmed by time. Violeta Urmana’s Countess is not cut from that cloth: she is as riveting dramatically as she is in total command of the role vocally. Urmana was glamorous and imperious as well as deliciously malicious, as she taunted and then triumphed over Soghomonyan’s Hermann.
Prince Yeletsky is not much of a role, but he gets one great aria, which Igor Golovatenko sang with all the ardor, lyricism and richness of his luxurious baritone that he could muster. Maria Barakova brightened the stage with her winning appearance and full-voiced singing as Lisa’s friend Paulina.
Alexey Markov cut a dashing figure as Count Tomsky, vividly telling the story of the Countess’s secret in his equally commanding voice. In the cameo role of the Governess, Jill Grove was a delight, emitting wicked growls in her deep contralto as she scolds the girls for doing anything so gauche as folk dancing.
There was great singing from the principals, but the chorus was their equal. Their singing in the opening scene was magnificent, and just as impressive in the ballroom scene. The Dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses, which entertained the Countess and other guests at the masked ball, was elegant and refined.
Keri-Lynn Wilson conducted a performance with all the passion inherent in Tchaikovsky’s score, yet gave careful attention to color, detail, texture and structure; with the Met Orchestra responding by imbuing the music in kind. Wilson led a memorable performance in which the grandeur and intensity of Tchaikovsky’s opera was revealed in all of its beauty and anguish.
Rick Perdian
Production:
Production – Elijah Moshinsky
Revival Stage Director – Paula Williams
Sets and Costumes – Mark Thompson
Lighting – Paul Pyant
Choreographer – John Meehan
Chorus director – Tilman Michael
Cast:
Tchekalinsky – Chad Shelton
Sourin – Raymond Aceto
Count Tomsky / Plutus – Alexey Markov
Hermann – Arsen Soghomonyan
Prince Yeletsky – Igor Golovatenko
Lisa – Sonya Yoncheva
Countess – Violeta Urmana
Pauline / Daphnis – Maria Barakova
Governess – Jill Grove
Masha – Edyta Kulczak
Master of Ceremonies – Daniel O’Hearn
Chloë – Ann-Kathrin Niemczyk
Tchaplitsky – Scott Scully
Naroumov – Christopher Job
Catherine the Great – Snezhana Chernova
Piano solo – Ksenia Leletkina