Pyotr Tchaikovsky, The Queen of Spades (1890)

Tchaikovsky's second-most-popular opera, they say, but is that really true? Let me note that Medicihas no less than four productions of it, and only one of Eugene Onegin.

In either case, though it's based on...a Pushkin story?!? *record scratch* Boy, who could've seen that coming? Seriously, who has more operas based on their work than Pushkin? The only other viable candidate seems to be Shakespeare. I mean yeah, okay, Shakespeare pretty clearly wins because of his great international presence, but it's worth noting that this very story has a total of three operas based on it, even if this is the only one performed nowadays.

The story--modified pretty significantly from Pushkin--is pretty odd: this military officer, Herman, is in love from afar with a woman, Liza, but she's engaged to another derned officer, Yeletsky. That's bad! But then she breaks it off to be with him. That's good! So far, this all sounds pretty normal, I know. But then: Yeletsky turns out to be surprisingly mature about the whole thing. Okay, THAT'S pretty weird for an opera. If Pushkin himself had been more mature about romance, he could've avoided dying in a duel, and JUST IMAGINE how much more he could've written and thus how many more Pushkin operas we could have! Boggles the mind!

But ANYWAY: so Liza's grandmother is a countess, known as the Queen of Spades (or "Pique Dame" in French, by which title the opera often goes). And when she was young, this countess was obsessed with gambling. One time, she ran out of money, but in exchange for her favors, one of her would-be lovers told her about three special cards that would allow her to win. Herman hears about this and becomes obsessed with learning the secret of the special cards. He descends into madness, and that is not the only bad thing that happens! Obviously, this is not meant to be a strictly realistic story, but it still nonplusses one a little with its weirdness. I do suspect, however, that subsequent viewings, already knowing what's going on, would be less bumpy.

Anyway, the characterization are honestly a bit shaky, but it doesn't really matter, because good gawd that music. Tchaikovsky was one of the all-time greats, no question. Pure passion! I can't even point very well to favorite moments, because the WHOLE THING is so terrific that it's hard for me to think, okay, this place. This place is particularly good. Well, I will site one: the countess sings an aria about her past, in French, "Je crains de lui parler la nuit." It's not even by Tchaikovsky; it's by the Belgian composer Andé Grety, for his more-or-less forgotten opera Richard Coeur-de-lion. Tchaikovsky just commandeered it (did money change hands here? I have no idea how early copyright law worked, if at all). But it's gorgeous; I'm aware that it looks a little weird that I talked up Tchaikovsky's music and then pointed to a piece he didn't write, but...well, I did it. And that's that. It probably stands out because it has a somewhat different sound than everything else.

Somewhat arbitrarily, I watched this one--hey, it got good reviews; why not? And I had no problems with it. All the singers were good, though I have to admit, it's a source of some frustration to me that I almost always end up saying something like that. I just can't make these vocal judgments that some people can of singers. I mean, occasionally I can detect problems when we're dealing with amateur-level performances, but if you're good enough to be cast in a high-caliber, professional production, these things are just lost on me, beyond particularly liking some performances, which however may just be me confusing acting and stage presence with singing per se. I suppose on the whole, it's a good thing for my appreciation, but it also means I'll never be a professional critic. Anyway! That said, I especially liked Ewa Podleś as the Countess. Smallish part, but very memorable.