opera notebook
some operas I have seen on videoPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Queen of Spades (1890)
libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1992
- Conductor: Andrew Davis
- Director: Graham Vick
- Set Designer: Richard Hudson
- Herman: Yuri Marusin
- Lisa: Nancy Gustafson
- Countess: Felicity Palmer
- Tomsky: Sergei Leiferkus
Richard Hudson's set design frames the action in a tilted rectangle splashed with ominous, energetic streaks of black. Yuri Marusin plays Herman as something of an annoying whiner, an approach which does pick out some of the less-appealing aspects of the role as written. But it also makes one wonder what Nancy Gustafson's Lisa sees in him. Felicity Palmer and Sergei Leiferkus are notably good in the salient supporting roles.