Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades)

Hans Neuenfels, the luminary of modern director’s theatre, provides a compelling, multi-layered staging of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame at Salzburg Festival. In the stark, mostly abstract sets by Christian Schmidt, Neuenfels “draws gripping performances from a strong cast” (The New York Times) including Brandon Jovanovich and Evgenia

Muraveva in the title roles of Herman and Lisa and legendary singer Hanna Schwarz as Countess. Mariss Jansons, “a compelling director in his element” (The New York Times) makes his rare appearance as an opera conductor, at the helm of the Wiener Philharmoniker – “Another triumph in this hot festival summer!“ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). Mariss Jansons, “maybe the best connoisseur of this unjustly neglected opera” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), turns this Queen of Spades with as much verve as sensitivity into a “captivating musical drama” (Die Zeit).

Salzburg Festival 2018: Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades)

Russian literature is unimaginable without Pushkin. It feeds on Pushkin, it breathes Pushkin. During his brief life – he died at the age of 38 – he produced a torrent of the most wonderful poems, plays and stories. Pushkin wrote the novella The Queen of Spades in 1833 in the course of a few days and “in a cold fury” – brief, sharply accentuated and focused on psychology. More than 50 years later, Tchaikovsky turned to this tale for an opera. Mariss Jansons conducts the Vienna Philharmonic, Hans Neuenfels directs Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades at the Großes Festspielhaus. Hanna Schwarz appears as the Countess. Evgenia Muraveva sings Lisa, Brandon Jovanovich is Herman, Vladislav Sulimsky appears as Count Tomsky / Plutus, and Igor Golovatenko is Prince Yelezky. “A triumph for conductor Mariss Jansons at the helm of the Wiener Philharmoniker” (FAZ); “Mr. Neuenfels draws gripping performances from a strong cast.” (NY Times)