As one of the highlights of the Holland Festival 2016, renowned director Stefan Herheim staged Tchaikovsky’s much-loved opera about a young man who, for the prospect of earthly wealth, gambles away his chance for love and happiness. Herheim gives an exciting visualisation of how Tchaikovsky’s unspeakable homosexuality and passion rises through the music to the surface of the story of gambling and love. The life he has acted and forfeited is played out against the drama. Mariss Jansons returned to Amsterdam to conduct Pique Dame with “his” Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He encounters a noteworthy cast, including star tenor Misha Didyk, a sought after interpreter of the Russian repertoire, who was making his Amsterdam debut in the role of Herman. The critics agree about the production’s quality: “A Pique Dame of extraordinary musical and scenical power” (Avant-Scène Opéra), which it is “absolutely worth seeing!” (Die Welt).
The Fiery Angel
Valéry Gergiev is said to be at his best when interpreting Russian composers. Convincing evidence is given with this production of Sergei Prokofiev’s “The Fiery Ange”l from the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Prokofiev’s disturbingly enigmatic opera was never performed during his lifetime – it was considered too decadent by Stalin and his successors – but David Freeman’s imaginative production asserts it as one of the composer’s greatest masterpieces. Galina Gorchakova and Sergei Leiferkus inspire with brilliant performances in the two main roles.
The opera is derived from a novel by the Russian decadent Valéry Bryusov. Ostensibly, it is a tale of religious hysteria and demonic possession and also explores symbolically the love triangle endured by the writer and his self-destructive lover, the poet Nina Petrovskaya.
David Freeman has completely entered into this opera’s strangely unnerving world. Evil is all around us and in his sensational production the image is taken quite literally.
Pique Dame
Former Music Director Mariss Jansons returns to Amsterdam to conduct Pique Dame at the Dutch National Opera with “his” Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He encounters a noteworthy cast and under his baton the orchestra sounds “brilliant and splendid“ (Der Tagesspiegel). Renowned director Stefan Herheim staged Tchaikovsky’s much-loved opera about a young man who, for the prospect of earthly wealth, gambles away his chance for love and happiness. Herheim, whose stagings are famous for their multi layered levels of interpretation, attempts to reflect on the composer’s hidden love for men. “The Latvian maestro, the intriguingly performing orchestra, the smartly-chosen soloists, and director Stefan Herheim have succeeded in staging an extraordinary production” (Die Presse). “Stefan Herheim makes a great picture show out of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pique Dame’” (NMZ). “A masterpiece” (Der Standard).
Ruslan and Lyudmila
From the Maryinsky Theatre St. Petersburg 1995
This live recording from the Kirov Opera provides a rare opportunity to see Glinka’s magical masterpiece in its entirety, in a magnificent production which brought together the formidable talents of conductor Valéry Gergiev, producer Lotfi Mansouri and stage designer Thierry Bosquet. The staging, though new, is in fact a meticulous recreation of an historic original, a spectacular piece of stagecraft from the height of Russia’s pre-Revolutionary Golden Age. The cast features some of Russia’s finest singers, including Anna Netrebko in one of her first major parts, Galina Gorchakova and Larissa Diadkova. The ballet contained in the opera is performed by the internationally-acclaimed Kirov Ballet. (Sung in Russian)