Stage director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev is going to present his version of the famous opera by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, drawing on stylistics of Italian masque theatre. Dmitry Jurowski, musical director of the production, is preparing his own interpretation of the musical score. In accordance with the Russian issue of Forbes, the production has been already enlisted into the top-five chart of the most expected Russian opera premieres.
"A lot of people imagine "The Queen of Spades" as a story that that takes place in the depressive grey St. Petersburg. But that is not so, - says Vyacheslav Starodubtsev. - Pyotr Tchaikovsky went to Florence to work on this opera in particular, in order to get inspired by the beauty of the city of Dante and Michelangelo".
All characters of the production, in accordance with its authors’ idea, have their own alter ego in the card deck. Each soloist or chorus artist corresponds a card of some suit. But the main character of the opera Hermann has his own unique position. “He has neither number, nor suit, - mentions Vyacheslav Starodubtsev, - Music by Tchaikovsky has made a Dostoyevsky's character out of Hermann, rather than Pushkin's. My idea was to oppose him, an ordinary man, to the rest of the world of gambling”.
The production is dedicated to the memory of Vsevolod Meyerhold, and not by chance. The production team takes into account the conditions of the game that are determined by the scale of the grandiose Theatre hall. “We work a lot on the actors' convincing intonation, but we cannot follow the rules of psychological theatre only, - the stage director says, - They are sometimes really hard to notice even when watching from the first row, let alone the amphitheatre or the circles, and here is where the biomechanics of Meyerhold, who was fond of Italian theatre, comes to rescue, where expressiveness of the body, poses and gestures play an important role.”