ROH Queen of Spades Live Screening

[Constantbee]

Audience reviews of this on the ROH’s own website (good place to look btw) were mixed. Opinions are polarised: they either loved it or hated it. It didn’t work for me, I’m afraid. Costumes were drab and looked home made, the set was tacky, chorus singing was good, but soloists were on and off the mark. Westbroek wasn’t well cast for the part imho. Bit too brassy. The creative idea was … er … odd, and flooding the stage with Tchaikovskys at every available moment was little short of comical It’s easy to believe The Met does live screenings better, too

[DracoM]

Ditto - the castings were bizarre. Might have worked in the planning office, but did not work out that well onstage.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I agree with what you say. Tchaikovsky as an ever present figure on the stage became tedious to me, although obviously essential to the Director's concept.
Westbroek is usually a reliable casting but, whatever the reason, seemed shrill. All in all, it was hard work. The combination of the vocal attributes of the singers and the writing led to one of the least rewarding evenings I have spent at ROH since before the redevlopment of the House. And we had to negotiate snow on the journey to the station!

However - opera going I regard as a lottery, win a few, lose a few. The previous night we saw Jaho as Violetta and she delivered a quite wonderful performance ! I can recommend the cinema screening on 30 Jan (with a repeat a few days later - Sunday). I have no particular objections to the ROH in cinemas.

https://www.roh.org.uk/cinemas

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I thought about going to the Paignton screening, but in view of the comments, I think it would have annoyed me .

Yet another director saying “Look at me. I’m daring.” No you’re not - you just have a look at me,me,me complex.

[ostuni]

Yes, the production was irritating in the extreme, and Westbroek was off-form (not a great favourite of mine anyway; a great pity that Lee Bisset, who jumped in for the dress rehearsal, wasn’t singing). Polyakov (Gherman) was apparently still recovering from illness, and sounded it during Act 1, but certainly improved and was, by all accounts, hugely superior to the miscast Antonenko.

But I'm very glad I went, and my £11 ticket (Lower Slips, standing) was plenty cheaper than many (most?) would have paid in the cinema. Tchaikovsky's wonderful orchestration (superbly played, apart from some off-colour trumpet moments) certainly sounds a lot better when experienced live. Stoyanov deserves a medal for not only singing Yeletsky's gorgeous aria very finely, but for having to be on stage for most of the performance, involved in far too much tedious business. And Felicity Palmer's Countess is absolutely magnificent. When I heard her in the CBSO's Pelléas last year, I couldn’t believe how wonderfully she was still singing, in her mid-70s: here, she sings just as fantastically, and totally inhabits the part.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I've heard this opera on the radio once or twice but have never seen or particularly studied it - no recording on the shelves either. Wasn't going to bother with the screening till I read Richard Taruskin's comments on this opera (and many other aspects of Tchaikovsky's life and works) in his On Russian Music.

After seeing the intro I thought I was going to hate it as 'director's opera' but didn't. Mentally challenging certainly, having as it were to subtract the onstage Tchaik all the time, but all in all I really enjoyed it.

[Nevilevelis]

Audience reviews of this on the ROH’s own website (good place to look btw) were mixed. Opinions are polarised: they either loved it or hated it. It didn’t work for me, I’m afraid. Costumes were drab and looked home made, the set was tacky, chorus singing was good, but soloists were on and off the mark. Westbroek wasn’t well cast for the part imho. Bit too brassy. The creative idea was … er … odd, and flooding the stage with Tchaikovskys at every available moment was little short of comical It’s easy to believe The Met does live screenings better, too

Vladimir Stoyanov is a superb singer and the costumes and set were made in Holland. And yes, I am in it.

NVV.

[Dave2002]

I'd never seen or heard this before last night's cinema screening. I enoyed it - but perhaps despite the production and some shortcomings. I'm not a fan of "Tweets", but the one which suggested it was bonkers seemed on the nail. I'm not sure whether it would have been any better if done "straight" - though I might now dig out my box of Tchaikovsky works to explore the music further. Obviously Pappano thinks it is good - though we don't have to agree with him.

I didn't think the ROH presentation compared particularly favourable with the Met's - not quite sure why, but perhaps there are just a few more clues to who is who, and what is what in the Met's productions than there were in this one. Perhaps having different costumes helps too.

[Conchis]

Not seen it, but the idea behind the production sounds intriguing. From the fact that it doesn't seem to be much liked by anyone who saw it, I'd say it didn't quite come off.

I don't think Francesca Zambello's previous ROH production was much good, either, though: very straight and unimaginative apart from the presence of a large dollop of snow throughout.

The best production of this I've ever seen was Richard Jones's for WNO in 2000. I'm a Jones fan, anyway, but I think this opera showed him at his creative peak. A pastorale done by puppets and the scene in Hermann's bed-room used an amazing 'filmic perspective', so that the audience seemed to be viewing the scene from a camera in the ceiling. The final scene was right out of Dostoyevsky.

The fact that I remember so much of it nearly 19 years later shows what an impression it made.

The Kirov's Barbican concert version in 1999 was pretty brilliant, too.

[LHC]

I saw this last Saturday at the Opera House.

Although I don't think the staging came off in the end (like others I got irritated by Yeletsky's/Tchaikovsky's constant presence on stage), the staging was at least unified by a cogent and coherent idea. In the house at least, the staging and settings were all very well managed, especially the way the walls of the set shifted between scenes and the clever use of mirrors to suggest a much larger stage space for certain scenes.

The conducting and orchestral playing was thrilling, and I really enjoyed the performance. Antonenko started rather wildly, and had pitching problems in the first act, but he settled down thereafter, and seemed in much better voice than some of the other things I have seen him in. I thought Antonenko also used his physical presence to good effect to suggest the character's selfishness as well as his obsession. Westbroek sang reasonably well, but was I thought miscast. I don't think the focus of the production helped her either, as it does rather turn Lisa into a bit of cipher. The star performances, apart from Pappano, came from Palmer as the Countess, and Stoyanov as Yeletsky.

I agree with Conchis that the previous Zambello production wasn't much cop, and I felt this one was certainly an improvement on that (and also on the recent Alden production at ENO that was dire in the extreme).

I didn't see the WNO production, but I did see the very powerful Elijah Moshinsky production for the Met in New York with Domingo as Ghermann, Hvorostovsky as Yeletsky and Elizabeth Soderstrom as the Countess.

[kuligin]

I saw this production on Monday, a very disapointing evening. I agree with Cockney Sparrow one of the poorest nights I have attended at ROH. The producer was the same as the Glyndebourne Pelleas where Pelleas was dressed as Debussy, and like Glyndebourne a new plot was married unsuccesfully to the opera. We have had plenty of poor productions lately at the ROH, and this was not as bad as say Lucia di Lamermoor, however the singing on Monday was also very poor. Antonenko was stretched coarse and shouting from time to time. Westbroeck was better but excessive vibrato and seemingly not involved, perhaps because the production never let her sing with Gherman, there was "Tchaikovsky " dancing, conducting, composing etc as she was singing.

Stoyanov sang his big aria nicely but you never knew when he was "Tchaikovsky" or Yeltsky. The best singing, acting , stage presence came from Palmer as the Countess. The orchestra sounded wonderful, so with eyes shut the introductions were the best bit.

Off to Leeds to see Kat'a Kabanova tomorrow, even a moderate performance like the recent Osud would be welcome after Covent Garden on this form

[Conchis]

Re: the run of poor productions at Covent Garden. Elijah Mojinsky recently returned to oversee his (old) production of Simon Boccangegra. When asked if he was likely to return to direct a new production at the ROH, he said it wouldn't happen: the ROH is not interested in the kind of 'naturalistic' productions he is known for.

[underthecountertenor]

Re: the run of poor productions at Covent Garden. Elijah Mojinsky recently returned to oversee his (old) production of Simon Boccangegra. When asked if he was likely to return to direct a new production at the ROH, he said it wouldn't happen: the ROH is not interested in the kind of 'naturalistic' productions he is known for.

John Copley came up to a group of us after the general rehearsal of the new Hansel and Gretel in December to ask if any of us worked at the ROH (one of us did, fortuitously), as he wanted to convey how much he had enjoyed the show. In the belief that none of us would have recognised him, he mentioned by way of explanation that he had directed 'a few' operas himself, including Hansel and Gretel. At this I said, 'I know who you are,' to which he replied, with a wicked twinkle, 'well, I'm not Elijah Moshinsky!'

[Lancashire Lass]

I saw the show at the ROH and I agree with most of what's been said. I must put in a good word for Westbroeck though, I had been pretty underwhelmed by her throughout but thought she was really magnificent in her last few minutes of singing. Her singing and acting were both very powerful and she absolutely held the stage -- you really got a sense of drama which hadn't been present before. It was therefore criminally inept that at the same time the production had Stoyanov bustling around the stage doing his "conducting" -- for once, you had eyes only for one character, Lisa, and there was Tchaikovsky distracting attention. Are the production brains so disdainful of audiences that they think we need lots going on to claim our attention?

OTOH, I also saw the production at the Coliseum (again with the excellent Felicity Palmer) where the audience were completely bemused by weird 60s costumes and an even weirder set. I did actually prefer the costumes in this production, a bit drab maybe but they certainly added to the sinister atmosphere when the chorus were flocking around the major characters like vermin.

[Constantbee]

Recently watched the DVD of the Graham Vick 1992 Glyndebourne production (Masunin/Gustafson/Palmer et al). By today’s standards the camerawork is primitive and the production has it has its faults, the orchestra sounds a bit thin, for example, but apart from that it’s still a delight to watch, and more faithful to the text for those who prefer it that way. Palmer is outstanding in the role of the countess. The close ups of the countess in the bedchamber scene show some of the best acting I’ve ever seen in opera on screen It’s a fine example of the how the cinematic contribution can enrich a performance (Act 2: the countess reminisces about her youth. Herman suddenly appears, pulls a gun on her and frightens her to death, leaving the winning card formula undisclosed).