The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky, P. I., No (2022/2023), Režisēja Alexei Stepanuyk, Diriģents Konstantin Chudovsky, Alexey Bogorad, Mikhail Granovsky, Ekaterinburg Opera, Ekaterinburg, Russia

It took three years for Tchaikovsky to agree to persuasion to compose for the Imperial Theaters an opera based on the plot of Pushkin's The Queen of Spades. The music was written in 44 days. 128 years have passed since the premiere, the directors are trying to resolve the mysteries and contradictions of The Queen of Spades - this is perhaps the most mysterious Russian opera. When does the action take place, if the guests at the ball are waiting for the arrival of Catherine II, and until then, romances based on verses of Pushkin's time are being played? How to explain such abrupt changes in the musical language: from a languid love duet in the spirit of Tchaikovsky's contemporary Wagner to a pastoral that is sometimes taken seriously for a Mozart piece? Finally, what are three cards - didn’t crazy Herman himself invent them? Director Alexei Stepanyuk has repeatedly staged The Queen of Spades in different theaters and admits that he is ready to look for answers to her questions every time. For the Ural Opera, he, together with the St. Petersburg artist Igor Ivanov, made a replica of the famous production of the Mariinsky Theater, where maestro Yuri Temirkanov acted as conductor and director. The stage directors compare the performance in Yekaterinburg with a leisurely walk through the halls of the Hermitage, or you can compare it with a trip to St. Petersburg. It has both the splendor of palace interiors, and the mystical night haze of “the most deliberate and abstract city”, and the pathos of speeches and actions of the inhabitants of this city: Tchaikovsky, unlike Pushkin, removed all irony in relation to what is happening from The Queen of Spades, and made the listeners sincerely empathize with the characters.