Charm is not something one might have expected to lift the gloom of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades in the version for WNO by producer Richard Jones.
Puppets enact the playlet that illustrates the course of idyllic love. In another scene, a skeleton is substituted for the ghost of the original.
Jones might have predicted the sighs of approval for the puppetry (by the dexterous Green Ginger) but not the odd giggle that broke out in the audience when the skeleton of the haunting Countess appears in bed with the gambler Herman.
But these were elements essential to this iconic production when it was premiered nine years ago, its sets breathtaking, its length mitigated by inspired stagecraft and its often surreal atmosphere a tribute to the original.
This time the Russian contingent penetrating the soul of the piece are Tatiana Monogarova as the helpless Lisa, Misha Didyk as Herman and, in the pit opening Tchaikovsky's orchestral casket of delights, the conductor Alexander Polianichko.
Didyk’s is the forceful, sometimes unforgiving, Russian tenor, yet his tone seems just right, encouraged in others, notably Tómas Tómasson's Count Tomsky, and contrasted with the mellower Monogarova, David Soar's Surin, Dario Solari’s Yeletsky and Ann Murray's Countess.
Once more Newportonian Michael Clifton-Thompson emerges as the company's master of the cameo in the role of the cross-dressed Dancer.
The chorus sings as though its existence depends on the atmosphere it reinforces, one in which the shadows are leavened only by sombre reflection, enchantment and lewd male posturing.
A worthy revival, long overdue. |
