Libretto Queen of Spades summary. Opera P

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The action takes place in St. Petersburg at the end of the 18th century.

Created Jan. 1890, Florence - June 1890, Frolovskoe.

First performance 7 Dec. 1890, Petersburg, Mariinskii Opera House. Conductor E.F. Napravnik. Directed by G.P.Kondratiev. Dances and interlude staged by M. Petipa. Artists: V.V.Vasiliev - d. I, kar. 1, A.S. Yanov - d. I, map. 2, G. Levot - d. II, map. 3 and d. III, map. 7, K.M. Ivanov - d. III, map. 4 and d. III, map. 6, I.P. Andreev - d. III, map. 5. Costumes according to the drawings of E.P. Ponomarev.

d. I, 1k.
Sunny Summer Garden. In an atmosphere of prosperity and joy, a crowd of townspeople, children, accompanied by nannies and governesses, walk around. Officers Surin and Chekalinsky share their impressions of the strange behavior of their friend Herman. He spends all night long in a gambling house, but does not even try to try his luck. Soon Herman himself appears, accompanied by Count Tomsky. Herman opens his soul to him: he is passionately, ardently in love, although he does not know the name of his chosen one. Prince Yeletsky, who has joined the company of officers, talks about his forthcoming marriage: "The bright angel agreed to combine his fate with mine!" Herman is horrified to learn that the prince's bride is the object of his passion, when the Countess passes by, accompanied by her granddaughter, Lisa.

Both women are seized with heavy premonitions, hypnotized by the burning gaze of the unfortunate Herman. Meanwhile, Tomsky tells the audience a secular anecdote about a countess who, being a young Moscow "lioness", lost her entire fortune and "at the cost of one rendezvous", having learned the fatal secret of three always winning cards, overcame fate: "Since she named those cards to her husband, in another once their young handsome man recognized them, but on the same night, only she was left alone, a ghost appeared to her and said menacingly: “You will receive a mortal blow from a third, who, passionately, passionately loving, will come to force you to learn three cards, three cards, three cards!" Herman listens to the story with particular tension. Surin and Chekalinsky make fun of him and offer to find out the secret of the cards from the old woman. no less force: "No, prince! As long as I'm alive, I won't give it to you, I don't know how, but I'll take it away!" he exclaims.

2 k.
At dusk, the girls play music in Lisa's room, trying to cheer up the saddened, despite the engagement with the prince, girl. Left alone, she confides her secret to the night: "And my whole soul is in his power!" - she confesses her love for a mysterious stranger, in whose eyes she read "the fire of scorching passion." Suddenly Herman appears on the balcony, who came to her before passing away. His ardent explanation captivates Lisa. The knock of the awakened Countess interrupts him. Hiding behind the curtain, Herman is excited by the very sight of the old woman, in whose face he sees a terrible ghost of death. Unable to hide her feelings any longer, Lisa surrenders to the power of Herman.

II d., 1 k.
There is a ball in the house of a rich metropolitan dignitary. Yeletsky, alarmed by Liza's coldness, assures her of the immensity of his love. Chekalinsky and Surin in masks mock Herman, whispering to him: "Are you the third one who, passionately loving, will come to learn from her three cards, three cards, three cards?" Herman is excited, their words excite his imagination. At the end of the Shepherd's Sincerity performance, he is confronted by the Countess. And when Lisa gives him the keys to the Countess's bedroom, which leads to her room, Herman takes it as an omen. Tonight he will learn the secret of the three cards - the way to take possession of Lisa's hand.

2 k.
Herman sneaks into the Countess's bedroom. With trepidation, he peers at the portrait of the Moscow beauty, with whom he is connected "by some kind of secret power." Here she is, accompanied by her companions. The Countess is dissatisfied, she does not like the current morals, customs, she longingly recalls the past and falls asleep in an armchair. Suddenly, Herman appears before her, begging to reveal the secret of the three cards: "You can make happiness whole life, and it won't cost you anything!" But the Countess, numb with fright, is motionless. Under the threat of a pistol, she expires. "She is dead, but I have not learned the secret," Herman, close to insanity, laments in response to the reproaches of Lisa who has entered.

III d. 1k.
German in the barracks. He reads a letter from Liza, who has forgiven him, where she makes an appointment with him on the embankment. In the imagination, pictures of the funeral of an old woman arise, funeral singing is heard. The emerging ghost of the Countess in a white funeral shroud broadcasts: "Save Lisa, marry her, and three cards will win in a row. Remember! Three! Seven! Ace!" "Three ... Seven ... Ace ..." - Herman repeats like a spell.

2 k.
Lisa is waiting for Herman on the embankment near Kanavka. She is torn by doubts: "Ah, I am exhausted, I have suffered," she exclaims in despair. At the moment when the clock strikes midnight, and Lisa finally lost faith in her lover, he appears. But German, at first repeating the words of love after Lisa, is already obsessed with another idea. Trying to captivate the girl to hurry after him to the gambling house, he runs away screaming. Realizing the inevitability of what happened, the girl rushes into the river.

3 k. Players have fun at the card table. Tomsky entertains them with a playful song. In the midst of the game, an agitated Herman appears. Twice in a row, offering big bets, he wins. "The devil himself is playing with you at the same time," those present proclaim. The game continues. This time against Herman, Prince Yeletsky. And instead of a win-win ace, the queen of spades turns out to be in his hands. Herman sees on the map the features of the dead old woman: "Damned! What do you need! My life? Take it, take it!" He's squirming. In the clarified consciousness, the image of Liza arises: "Beauty! Goddess! Angel!" With these words Herman dies.

The opera was commissioned by Tchaikovsky from the directorate of the imperial theatres. The plot was proposed by I.A. Vsevolozhsky. The beginning of negotiations with the directorate dates back to 1887/88. Initially Ch. refused and only in 1889 decided to write an opera based on this story. At a meeting in the directorate of the imperial theaters at the end of 1889, the script, the layout of the opera scenes, the staging moments, and the design elements of the performance were discussed. The opera was composed in sketches from 19/31 Jan. to March 3/15 in Florence. In July - Dec. 1890 Ch. made many changes to the score, in literary text, recitatives, vocal parts; at the request of N.N. Figner, two versions of Herman's aria from the 7th card were also created. (different tones). All these changes are fixed in the proof-readings of the transcription for singing with piano, marks, various inserts of the 1st and 2nd editions.

When creating sketches Ch. actively reworked the libretto. He significantly changed the text, introduced stage directions, made cuts, composed his own texts for Yeletsky's aria, Lisa's aria, and the choir "Come on, little Masha."

The libretto uses poems by Batyushkov (in the romance of Polina), V.A. Zhukovsky (in the duet of Polina and Lisa), G.R. Derzhavin (in the final scene), P.M.

The scene in the Countess's bedroom uses the old French song "Vive Henri IV". In the same scene, with minor changes, the beginning of Loretta's aria from A. Gretry's opera "Richard the Lionheart" is borrowed. In the final scene, the second half of the song (polonaise) "Thunder of victory, resound" by I.A. Kozlovsky was used.

Before starting work on the opera, Tchaikovsky was in a depressed state, which he admitted in a letter to A.K. Glazunov: “I am going through a very mysterious stage on the way to the grave. fatigue from life, some kind of disappointment: at times an insane longing, but not the one in the depths of which there is a foreknowledge of a new surge of love for life, but something hopeless, final ... And at the same time, the desire to write is terrible ... On the one hand, I feel that it is as if my song has already been sung, and on the other hand, an irresistible desire to drag out either the same life, or even better a new song "...

Tchaikovsky was very fond of and highly appreciated his opera " Queen of Spades", calling it a masterpiece. It was written in sketches for 44 days in Florence. The plot is borrowed from Pushkin's story of the same name. The libretto was written by the composer's brother M.I. Tchaikovsky, although some texts were written by Tchaikovsky himself. The opera was composed quickly and with special passion. After its completion, the composer wrote a string sextet "Memories of Florence", dedicating it to the city in which he created his favorite brainchild.

Ch. was well aware of the significance of the "Queen of Spades" even in the process of work. Here are the lines of his letter to Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich: "I wrote it with unprecedented fervor and enthusiasm, I vividly suffered and felt everything that was happening in it (even to the point that at one time I was afraid of the appearance of the ghost of the" Queen of Spades ") and I hope that all my author's enthusiasm , excitements and passions will resonate in the hearts of sympathetic listeners "(dated August 3, 1890). And one more eloquent self-assessment: "... either I am terribly mistaken, or The Queen of Spades is really a masterpiece ..." This self-assessment turned out to be prophetic. The composer's characterization of the idea of the Fourth Symphony perfectly corresponds to the main meaning of his operatic masterpiece: "This is fate, this is that fatal force that prevents the impulse of happiness from reaching its goal." "Everything is new, compared with Pushkin, in the plot ... - notes the librettist of the opera M.I. Tchaikovsky, - transferring the time of the action to the era of Catherine and introducing a love-dramatic element." We add that Herman in the opera is not a prudent and ambitious player with the "soul of Mephistopheles", but a poor officer, a "warm, lively attitude" to which the author himself gives rise to our response - more sympathy than condemnation. Liza is transformed from a poor pupil into the granddaughter of an old countess. In addition, she is the bride and, unlike the poor Herman, her fiance is the noble and wealthy Prince Yeletsky. All this reinforces the motive social inequality separating the heroes. Interpreting it your way Pushkin's story, Ch. enlarged it at the same time.

The peculiarity of the opera is the fact that main character her, Herman, is present on stage and sings in all seven scenes of the opera, which required high skill and endurance from the singer. The part of Herman was written for the remarkable Russian tenor N.N. Figner, who became its first performer.

The composer himself took part in the preparation of the St. Petersburg premiere, playing the roles of Herman and Lisa with the Figners. According to critics, "Figner's bright temperament gave each phrase a very high relief in the corresponding strong moments. In purely lyrical places ... Figner's singing was imbued with charming softness and sincerity." "Figner and the St. Petersburg orchestra ... performed true miracles," Tchaikovsky later wrote. The success of The Queen of Spades, as its author had foreseen, was amazing. With the same incredible success"The Queen of Spades" was received in Kyiv 12 days after the St. Petersburg premiere in the performance of IP Pryanishnikov's opera entreprise under the direction of I.V. Pribik with the famous artist M.E. Medvedev in the role of Herman. November 4, 1891 "The Queen of Spades" was given in Moscow in Bolshoi Theater. The author was present at the performance, as well as at the first performances in St. Petersburg and Kyiv, and took part in rehearsal work. Conducted by I.K.Altani. The main roles were played by outstanding artists: M.E. Medvedev (German), who moved from Kyiv to Moscow, M.A. Deisha-Sionitskaya (Lisa), P.A. Khokhlov (Eletsky), B.B. Korsov (Tomsky) and A.P. Krutikova (Countess). The staging was very carefully prepared in national theater Prague under the baton of conductor A. Cech (October 12 - September 30, 1892) - the first performance of The Queen of Spades abroad.

P. E. Weidman

"THE LADY OF SPADES". Recording to mp3

Actors and performers:
Herman - Nikandr Khanaev (tenor), Liza - Ksenia Derzhinskaya (soprano), Countess - Bronislava Zlatogorova (contralto), Count Tomsky - Alexander Baturin (baritone), Prince Yeletsky - Panteleimon Nortsov (baritone), Polina / Milovzor (Dafnis) - Maria Maksakova (mezzo-soprano), Prilepa/Chloe - Valeria Barsova (soprano), Zlatogor - Vladimir Politkovsky (baritone), Chekalinsky - Sergei Ostroumov (tenor), Surin - Ivan Manshavin (tenor), Chaplitsky - Mikhail Novozhenin (bass), Narumov - Konstantin Terekhin (bass), Masha - Nadezhda Chubienko (soprano), Governess - Margarita Shervinskaya (contralto), Master of Ceremonies - Pyotr Belinnik (tenor).

Libretto M.I. Tchaikovsky based on the novel by A.S. Pushkin

1 action

1 painting

Petersburg. Summer garden. Passing by busy groups of walkers, Surin tells Chekalinsky about yesterday's card game: as always, Herman was sitting near the gambling table, he looked gloomily at the game of others all night, but he himself did not take part in it.

Herman and Count Tomsky come to the garden. Herman is in love with a girl whose name he does not know, he only knows that she is noble and therefore cannot be his wife.

Prince Yeletsky informs his friends that he is getting married. Herman asks who is his fiancee. "Here she is," Yeletsky says, pointing to Lisa, who is accompanying her grandmother, an old countess called the Queen of Spades. Lisa is the girl Herman is in love with.

"Happy day, bless you!" Yeletsky says. "Unhappy day, I curse you!" Herman exclaims.

Tomsky tells others that in her youth the countess was a beauty. A passionate gambler, she once, while in Paris, lost completely.

Count Saint-Germain called her three win-win cards, which helped the "Moscow Venus" to return the state. It is predicted to the countess that the one who, burning with ardent passion, will come to her to find out what these cards are, will bring death to her. Tomsky's story makes a strong impression on Herman.

The garden is empty. A thunderstorm starts. The storm does not frighten Herman. He vows that Lisa will be his or he will die.

2 picture

Liza's room in the Countess's house. Lisa's friends have gathered. Liza and Polina sing a duet “It's already evening; the edges of the clouds faded ... ". Polina performs sad romance“Dear friends”, but immediately switches to the Russian dance song “Come on, little light-Mashenka”. The fun is interrupted by a strict governess - the countess is angry: it's already late, the girls prevent her from sleeping. The girls disperse.

Left alone, Liza confides her innermost secret to the "queen of the night": she loves Herman.

Herman appears at the door of the balcony. He confesses his love to Lisa.

But there is a loud knock on the door. The old countess herself comes to Lisa to find out the cause of the noise that disturbs her peace. Having managed to hide in the depths of the balcony, Herman recalls the legend of the three cards. For a moment, love for Lisa recedes before a burning desire to know the secret of the cards.

The countess leaves, and Herman comes to his senses. With more greater strength passion, he tells Lisa about his love. At first, Lisa begs him to leave, but then, subdued by the strength of his feelings, she utters the words of a reciprocal confession.

2 action

1 painting

Ball with a rich dignitary. Yeletsky notices that Liza is sad and asks him to tell him the reason for her sadness. But Lisa evades explanation. She is not touched by the pleas of the groom, she is indifferent to Yeletsky.

Liza gives Herman the key to the secret door of the Countess's house: they need to meet. The path to Lisa's room lies through the grandmother's bedroom. It seems to Herman that fate itself helps him to recognize the three cherished cards.

2 picture

Countess's bedroom. From here Herman must get into Lisa's room. Obsessed with the desire to learn three cards, Herman decides to stay here and get the cherished answer from the countess.

Having returned from the ball, the countess, having driven away the hangers-on and the maids, recalls her youth, brilliant balls in Paris.

Herman, who suddenly appears, asks the Countess to tell him the secret of the three cards. The old woman is silent. Herman, threatening with a pistol, demands to tell him these three cards. The Countess is dying of fear.

Hearing a noise, Lisa runs into the bedroom. Seeing the dead countess, she exclaims in despair: “You didn’t need me, but the cards!”.

3 action

1 painting

Herman's room in the barracks. Herman reads Lisa's letter. She asks him to come to the embankment for an explanation.

Memories of the death and funeral of the countess haunt Herman: he sees the ghost of an old woman. She orders Herman to marry Lisa, and then three cards - three, seven, ace - will win in a row.

2 picture

Embankment Kanavka. Nearing midnight. Lisa is waiting for Herman. But he is not there.
When Lisa loses hope, Herman arrives. For a moment, it seems to both that happiness will not leave them, that all suffering is forgotten. But, obsessed with the thought of three cards, Herman pushes Lisa away and runs away to the gambling house. Lisa jumps into the water.

3 picture

The card game in the gambling house is in full swing. Herman bets all his money on the card named by the ghost: three, and wins. The rate is doubled. The second card - seven - again brings him good luck.

Herman, in extreme excitement, challenges others to play with him again. Herman's challenge is accepted by Yeletsky. Herman's third card turns out to be not an ace, but a queen of spades. Bit map. Herman sees the ghost of the countess. He goes crazy and shoots himself.

It is amazing, but before P.I. Tchaikovsky created his tragic operatic masterpiece, Pushkin's The Queen of Spades inspired Franz Suppe to compose ... an operetta (1864); and even earlier - in 1850 - he wrote the opera of the same name French composer Jacques Francois Fromental Halévy (however, there is little left of Pushkin here: Scribe wrote the libretto, using the translation of The Queen of Spades into French, made in 1843 by Prosper Mérimée; in this opera, the name of the hero is changed, the old countess is turned into a young Polish princess and so on). These, of course, are curious circumstances, which can only be learned from music encyclopedias — artistic value these works do not represent.

The plot of The Queen of Spades, proposed to the composer by his brother, Modest Ilyich, did not immediately interest Tchaikovsky (as did the plot of Eugene Onegin in his time), but when he nevertheless mastered his imagination, Tchaikovsky began to work on the opera "with self-forgetfulness and pleasure” (as well as over “Eugene Onegin”), and the opera (in the clavier) was written in an amazing short term- in 44 days. In a letter to N.F. von Meck P.I. Tchaikovsky tells how he came up with the idea of writing an opera based on this plot: “It happened in this way: three years ago my brother Modest began to compose a libretto for the plot of The Queen of Spades at the request of a certain Klenovsky, but this latter gave up composing music in the end, for some reason unable to cope with his task. Meanwhile, the director of the theaters, Vsevolozhsky, was carried away by the idea that I should write an opera on this very plot, and, moreover, by all means for the next season. He expressed this desire to me, and since it coincided with my decision to flee Russia in January and take up writing, I agreed ... I really want to work, and if I manage to get a good job somewhere in a cozy corner abroad, it seems to me that I will master my task and submit the keyboardist to the directorate by May, and in the summer I will instrument it.

Tchaikovsky left for Florence and began work on The Queen of Spades on January 19, 1890. The surviving draft sketches give an idea of how and in what sequence the work proceeded: this time the composer wrote almost “in a row”. The intensity of this work is amazing: from January 19 to 28, the first picture is composed, from January 29 to February 4, the second picture, from February 5 to 11, the fourth picture, from February 11 to 19, the third picture, etc.

Aria Yeletsky "I love you, I love you immensely ..." performed by Yuri Gulyaev

Tomsky's couplets to Derzhavin's words "If dear girls .." Please note: in these couplets the letter "r" is not found at all! Singing Sergey Leiferkus

Count Tomsky, whose relationship with the countess is not noted in the opera, and where he is introduced by an outsider (just an acquaintance of Herman, like other players), Pushkin is her grandson; this apparently explains his knowledge of the family secret. The action of Pushkin's drama takes place in the era of Alexander I, while the opera takes us - this was the idea of the director of the imperial theaters I.A. Vsevolozhsky - into the era of Catherine. The finals of the drama in Pushkin and Tchaikovsky are also different: in Pushkin, Hermann, although he goes crazy (“He is in the Obukhov hospital in the 17th room”), still does not die, and Lisa, moreover, gets married relatively safely; in Tchaikovsky, both heroes die. Many more examples of differences, both external and internal, can be cited in the interpretation of events and characters by Pushkin and Tchaikovsky.

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Aria of the Countess performed by Elena Obraztsova

When Tchaikovsky set to work, he made changes to the libretto and partially wrote the poetic text himself, introducing into it also the poems of poets - Pushkin's contemporaries. The text of the scene with Liza at the Winter Canal belongs entirely to the composer. The most spectacular scenes were shortened by him, but nevertheless they give effect to the opera and form the background for the development of the action.

Scene at the Canal. Singing Tamara Milashkina

Perhaps, in the obsessed Herman, who demands from the countess to name three cards and dooms himself to death, he saw himself, and in the countess - his patroness Baroness von Meck. Their strange, one-of-a-kind relationship, maintained only in letters, a relationship like two incorporeal shadows, ended in a break just in 1890.

In the appearance of Herman in front of Lisa, the power of fate is felt; the countess brings in the grave cold, and the ominous thought of three cards poisons the mind young man.

In the scene of his meeting with the old woman, Herman's stormy, desperate recitative and aria, accompanied by vicious, repetitive sounds of wood, signify the collapse of the unfortunate man, who loses his mind in the next scene with a ghost, truly expressionistic, with echoes of "Boris Godunov" (but with a richer orchestra) . Then follows the death of Liza: a very tender sympathetic melody sounds against a terrible funeral background. Herman's death is less majestic, but not without tragic dignity. As for the "Queen of Spades", she was immediately accepted by the public as a great success for the composer.

History of creation

The plot of Pushkin's The Queen of Spades did not immediately interest Tchaikovsky. However, over time, this short story increasingly took possession of his imagination. Tchaikovsky was especially excited by the scene of Herman's fatal meeting with the countess. Its deep drama captivated the composer, causing an ardent desire to write an opera. The composition was begun in Florence on February 19, 1890. The opera was created, according to the composer, "with self-forgetfulness and pleasure" and was completed in an extremely short time - forty-four days. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg at the Mariinsky Theater on December 7 (19), 1890 and was a huge success.

Shortly after the publication of his short story (1833), Pushkin wrote in his diary: “My Queen of Spades is in great fashion. Players ponting for three, seven, ace. The popularity of the story was explained not only by the amusement of the plot, but also by the realistic reproduction of the types and customs of the St. 19th century. In the libretto of the opera, written by the composer's brother M. I. Tchaikovsky (1850-1916), the content of Pushkin's story is largely rethought. Lisa from a poor pupil turned into a rich granddaughter of the countess. Pushkin's Herman, a cold, prudent egoist, possessed only by a thirst for enrichment, appears in Tchaikovsky's music as a man with a fiery imagination and strong passions. The difference in the social status of the characters introduced the theme of social inequality into the opera. With high tragic pathos, it reflects the fate of people in a society subject to the merciless power of money. Herman is a victim of this society; the desire for wealth imperceptibly becomes his obsession, obscuring his love for Lisa and leading him to death.

Music

The opera The Queen of Spades is one of the greatest works world realistic art. This musical tragedy amazes with the psychological veracity of the reproduction of the thoughts and feelings of the heroes, their hopes, suffering and death, the brightness of the pictures of the era, the intensity of the musical and dramatic development. The characteristic features of Tchaikovsky's style received here their most complete and perfect expression.

The orchestral introduction is based on three contrasting musical images: narrative, connected with Tomsky's ballad, ominous, depicting the image of the old Countess, and passionately lyrical, characterizing Herman's love for Lisa.

The second picture is divided into two halves - everyday and love-lyrical. The idyllic duet of Polina and Lisa "It's already evening" is covered with light sadness. Polina's romance "Dear Friends" sounds gloomy and doomed. The second half of the picture opens with Lisa's arioso "Where do these tears come from" - a heartfelt monologue, full of deep feeling.

Singing Galina Vishnevskaya. "Where do these tears come from..."

Liza's melancholy is replaced by an enthusiastic confession "Oh, listen, night." Gently sad and passionate Herman's arioso "Forgive me, heavenly creature"

Georgy Nelepp - the best German, sings "Forgive me, heavenly creature"

interrupted by the appearance of the Countess: the music takes on a tragic tone; there are sharp, nervous rhythms, ominous orchestral colors. The second picture ends with the affirmation of the light theme of love. Prince Yeletsky's aria "I love you" describes his nobility and restraint. The fourth picture, the central one in the opera, is full of anxiety and drama.

At the beginning of the fifth scene (act three), against the backdrop of funeral singing and the howling of a storm, Herman’s excited monologue arises “All the same thoughts, all the same nightmare". The music that accompanies the appearance of the ghost of the Countess fascinates with dead stillness.

The seventh picture begins with everyday episodes: the drinking song of the guests, the frivolous song of Tomsky “If only dear girls” (to the words of G. R. Derzhavin). With the advent of Herman, the music becomes nervously excited. Anxiously alert septet "Something's wrong here" conveys the excitement that gripped the players. Rapture of victory and cruel joy are heard in Herman's aria “What is our life? The game!". In the dying moment, his thoughts are again turned to Liza - a quiveringly tender image of love appears in the orchestra.

Herman's aria "That our life is a game" performed by Vladimir Atlantov

Tchaikovsky was so deeply captured by the whole atmosphere of the action and images actors"Queen of Spades", which perceived them as real living people. Having finished sketching the opera with feverish speed(The whole work was completed in 44 days - from January 19 to March 3, 1890. The orchestration was completed in June of that year.), he wrote to his brother Modest Ilyich, the author of the libretto: “... when I got to the death of Herman and the final choir, I felt so sorry for Herman that I suddenly began to cry a lot<...>It turns out that Herman was not only a pretext for me to write this or that music, but all the time a living person ... ".

In Pushkin, Herman is a man of one passion, straightforward, prudent and tough, ready to put his own and other people's lives at stake in order to achieve his goal. In Tchaikovsky, he is internally broken, is in the grip of conflicting feelings and drives, the tragic irreconcilability of which leads him to inevitable death. The image of Lisa was subjected to a radical rethinking: the ordinary colorless Pushkin Lizaveta Ivanovna became strong and passionate nature, selflessly devoted to her feelings, continuing the gallery of pure poetically sublime female images in Tchaikovsky's operas from Oprichnik to The Enchantress. At the request of the director of the imperial theaters, I. A. Vsevolozhsky, the action of the opera was transferred from the 30s of the 19th century to the second half XVIII century, which gave rise to the inclusion in it of a picture of a magnificent ball in the palace of Catherine's nobleman with an interlude stylized in the spirit of the "gallant age", but did not affect the overall color of the action and the characters of its main participants. For the richness and complexity of its peace of mind, sharpness and intensity of experience, these are the composer's contemporaries, in many respects related to the heroes of the psychological novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.

And one more performance of Herman's aria "What is our life? A game!" Zurab Anjaparidze sings. Recorded in 1965, Bolshoi Theatre.

In the film-opera "The Queen of Spades" the main parts were performed by Oleg Strizhenov - German, Olga-Krasina - Lisa. The vocal parts were performed by Zurab Anjaparidze and Tamara Milashkina.

Modest Tchaikovsky, ten years younger than his brother Peter, is not known as a playwright outside of Russia except for the libretto of The Queen of Spades after Pushkin, set to music in early 1890. The plot of the opera was proposed by the directorate of the imperial Petersburg theaters, who intended to present a grandiose performance from the era of Catherine II. When Tchaikovsky set to work, he made changes to the libretto and partially wrote the poetic text himself, introducing into it also the poems of poets - Pushkin's contemporaries. The text of the scene with Liza at the Winter Canal belongs entirely to the composer. The most spectacular scenes were shortened by him, but nevertheless they give effect to the opera and form the background for the development of the action. And even these scenes Tchaikovsky masterfully processed, an example of which is the text introducing the choir of praise to the tsarina, the final chorus of the first picture of the second act.

Thus, he put a lot of effort into creating an authentic atmosphere of that time. In Florence, where the sketches of the opera were written and part of the orchestration was made, Tchaikovsky did not part with the music of the 18th century of the era of the “Queen of Spades” (Gretry, Monsigni, Piccinni, Salieri) and wrote in his diary: “At times it seemed that I was living in the 18th century and that there was nothing further than Mozart. Of course, Mozart in his music is no longer so young. But besides imitating - with an inevitable degree of dryness - rococo patterns and resurrecting expensive gallant neoclassical forms, the composer relied primarily on his heightened susceptibility. His feverish state during the creation of the opera went beyond the usual tension. Perhaps, in the obsessed Herman, who demanded from the countess to name three cards and doomed himself to death, he saw himself, and in the countess - his patroness Baroness von Meck. Their strange, one-of-a-kind relationship, maintained only in letters, a relationship like two incorporeal shadows, ended in a break just in 1890.

The unfolding of the action, which is increasingly frightening, is distinguished by the ingenious technique of Tchaikovsky, who connects complete, independent, but closely related scenes: secondary events (outwardly leading away, but in fact necessary for the whole) alternate with the key events that make up the main intrigue. One can distinguish five core themes that the composer uses as Wagnerian leitmotifs. Four are closely related: Hermann's theme (descending, gloomy), the theme of the three cards (anticipating the Sixth Symphony), the theme of Lisa's love ("Tristanian", according to Hoffmann), and the theme of fate. The theme of the countess stands apart, based on the repetition of three notes of equal duration.

The score is distinguished by a number of features. The coloring of the first act is close to that of Carmen (especially the march of the boys), here Herman's heartfelt arioso, recalling Lisa, stands out. Then the action is suddenly transferred to the living room of the late 18th - early 19th century, in which a pathetic duet sounds, oscillating between major and minor, accompanied by obligatory flutes. In the appearance of German in front of Lisa, one feels the power of fate (and his melody is somewhat reminiscent of Verdi's "Force of Destiny"); the countess introduces a grave cold, and the ominous thought of three cards poisons the mind of the young man. In the scene of his meeting with the old woman, Herman's stormy, desperate recitative and aria, accompanied by vicious, repetitive sounds of wood, signify the collapse of the unfortunate man, who loses his mind in the next scene with a ghost, truly expressionistic, with echoes of "Boris Godunov" (but with a richer orchestra) . Then follows the death of Liza: a very tender sympathetic melody sounds against a terrible funeral background. Herman's death is less majestic, but not without tragic dignity. This double suicide once again testifies to the composer's decadent romanticism, which made so many hearts tremble and still constitutes the most popular side of his music. However, behind this passionate and tragic picture hides a formal construction inherited from neoclassicism. Tchaikovsky wrote well about this in 1890: "Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann composed their immortal creations in exactly the same way as a shoemaker sews boots." Thus, in the first place is the skill of the craftsman, and only then - inspiration. As for The Queen of Spades, she was immediately accepted by the public as a great success for the composer.

G. Marchesi (translated by E. Greceanii)

History of creation

Shortly after the publication of his short story (1833), Pushkin wrote in his diary: “My Queen of Spades is in great fashion. Players ponting for three, seven, ace. The popularity of the story was explained not only by the amusing plot, but also by the realistic reproduction of the types and customs of St. Petersburg society at the beginning of the 19th century. In the libretto of the opera, written by the composer's brother M. I. Tchaikovsky (1850-1916), the content of Pushkin's story is largely rethought. Lisa from a poor pupil turned into a rich granddaughter of the countess. Pushkin's Herman, a cold, prudent egoist, possessed only by a thirst for enrichment, appears in Tchaikovsky's music as a man with a fiery imagination and strong passions. The difference in the social status of the characters introduced the theme of social inequality into the opera. With high tragic pathos, it reflects the fate of people in a society subject to the merciless power of money. Herman is a victim of this society; the desire for wealth imperceptibly becomes his obsession, obscuring his love for Lisa and leading him to death.

Music

The Queen of Spades opera is one of the greatest works of world realistic art. This musical tragedy amazes with the psychological veracity of the reproduction of the thoughts and feelings of the heroes, their hopes, suffering and death, the brightness of the pictures of the era, the intensity of the musical and dramatic development. The characteristic features of Tchaikovsky's style received here their most complete and perfect expression.

The first act opens with a light everyday scene. The choirs of nannies, governesses, the fervent march of the boys convexly set off the drama of subsequent events. In Herman's arioso “I don't know her name”, sometimes elegiacly tender, sometimes impetuously excited, the purity and strength of his feelings are captured. The duet of Herman and Yeletsky confronts the sharply contrasting states of the heroes: Herman’s passionate complaints “Unhappy day, I curse you” are intertwined with the prince’s calm, measured speech “Happy day, I bless you.” The central episode of the picture is the quintet "I'm scared!" - conveys the gloomy forebodings of the participants. In Tomsky's ballad, the refrain about three mysterious cards sounds ominously. A stormy scene of a thunderstorm, against which Herman's oath sounds, ends the first picture.

The second picture breaks up into two halves - everyday and love-lyrical. The idyllic duet of Polina and Lisa "It's already evening" is covered with light sadness. Polina's romance "Dear Friends" sounds gloomy and doomed. The live dance song “Come on, Light-Mashenka” serves as a contrast to it. The second half of the picture opens with Lisa's arioso "Where do these tears come from" - a penetrating monologue full of deep feelings. Liza's melancholy is replaced by an enthusiastic confession "Oh, listen, night." Herman's tenderly sad and passionate arioso "Forgive me, heavenly creature" is interrupted by the appearance of the Countess: the music takes on a tragic tone; there are sharp, nervous rhythms, ominous orchestral colors. The second picture ends with the affirmation of the light theme of love. In the third picture (second act), scenes of life in the capital become the background of the developing drama. The opening choir, in the spirit of the welcoming cantatas of the Catherine era, is a kind of screensaver for the picture. Prince Yeletsky's aria "I love you" describes his nobility and restraint. Pastoral "The sincerity of the shepherdess" - a stylization of the music of the XVIII century; elegant, graceful songs and dances frame the idyllic love duet of Prilepa and Milovzor. In the finale, at the moment of the meeting between Lisa and Herman, a distorted melody of love sounds in the orchestra: a turning point has occurred in Herman's mind, from now on he is guided not by love, but by the haunting thought of three cards. The fourth picture, the central one in the opera, is full of anxiety and drama. It begins with an orchestral introduction, in which the intonations of Herman's love confessions are guessed. The choir of hangers-on (“Our Benefactor”) and the song of the Countess (a melody from Gretry's opera “Richard the Lionheart”) are replaced by music of an ominously hidden character. Herman's passionate arioso "If you ever knew the feeling of love" contrasts with her.

At the beginning of the fifth picture (the third act), against the background of funeral singing and the howling of a storm, Herman's excited monologue "All the same thoughts, all the same terrible dream" arises. The music that accompanies the appearance of the ghost of the Countess fascinates with dead stillness.

The orchestral introduction of the sixth picture is painted in gloomy tones of doom. The wide, freely flowing melody of Lisa's aria "Ah, I'm tired, I'm tired" is close to Russian lingering songs; the second part of the aria "So it's true, with a villain" is full of despair and anger. The lyrical duet of German and Lisa "Oh yes, the suffering has passed" is the only bright episode of the picture. It is replaced by a scene of Herman's delirium about gold, remarkable in psychological depth. The return of the intro music, which sounds menacing and inexorable, speaks of the collapse of hopes.

The seventh picture begins with everyday episodes: the drinking song of the guests, the frivolous song of Tomsky “If only dear girls” (to the words of G. R. Derzhavin). With the advent of Herman, the music becomes nervously excited. Anxiously alert septet "Something's wrong here" conveys the excitement that gripped the players. Rapture of victory and cruel joy are heard in Herman's aria “What is our life? The game!". In the dying moment, his thoughts are again turned to Lisa - a quiveringly tender image of love appears in the orchestra.

This opera is the pinnacle of Tchaikovsky's work. It was composed by him in 44 days. With amazing power, the composer managed to embody the power of human passions in music. Compared to the story, the collisions of the plot in the opera are more dramatized (for example, Liza in Pushkin does not commit suicide, but marries, Herman ends up in a psychiatric hospital).

The musical language of Tchaikovsky in this work was enriched by a number of harmonic and rhythmic finds (especially in the 2nd scene, 2d.). To musical masterpieces include such episodes of the opera as Tomsky's ballad Once upon a time in Versailles(1 day), Liza's aria Where are these tears from?(1 day), Herman's aria I'm sorry heavenly creature(1 day), Scene in the Countess's bedroom (2 days), Lisa's arioso It's nearing midnight and Hermann's aria What is our life?(3 days) and others.

The opera was successfully staged in many countries of the world (among them we note the performance of 1902 at the Vienna Opera directed by Mahler). The biggest event was the performance of the Bolshoi Theater in 1904 by Rachmaninov. Among the best performers on the Russian stage are the parts of Herman Alchevsky, Pechkovsky, Lisa - Derzhinskaya, Vishnevskaya.

Publications

Provincial theaters at the Golden Mask 04/05/2013 at 22:10The Queen of Spades at the Vienna Staatsoper (operanews.ru) 01/27/2013 at 22:27New entries in the Queen of Spades at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater (operanews.ru) 10/21/2012 at 17:17 Tchaikovsky's great opera in Astrakhan (operanews.ru) 07/08/2012 at 13:06 The Queen of Spades at the Bolshoi (operanews.ru) 06/03/2012 at 15:47 Peter Konvichny staged Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades in Graz (operanews.ru) 04/15/2012 at 17:11The Queen of Spades in Paris (operanews.ru) 03/11/2012 at 16:10The Queen of Spades is a success in Stockholm 09/02/2009 at 11:18Opera The Queen of Spades at the Bolshoi Theater 08.10.2007 at 13:22

To the libretto by Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky based on the story of the same name by A.S. Pushkin.

Characters:

HERMAN (tenor)
COUNT TOMSKY (baritone)
PRINCE ELETSKY (baritone)
CHEKALINSKY (tenor)
SURIN (tenor)
CHAPLITSKY (bass)
NARUMOV (bass)
MANAGER (tenor)
Countess (mezzo-soprano)
LISA (soprano)
POLINA (contralto)
GOVERNESS (mezzo-soprano)
MASHA (soprano)
BOY COMMANDER (without singing)

actors in the interlude:
PRILEPA (soprano)
MILOVZOR (POLINA) (contralto)
ZLATOGOR (COUNT TOMSKY) (baritone)
NUNSENSES, GOVERNESSES, NURSES, WALKERS, GUESTS, CHILDREN, PLAYERS, AND OTHER.

Action time: the end of the 18th century, but no later than 1796.
Location: Petersburg.
First performance: St. Petersburg, Mariinsky Theatre, December 7 (19), 1890.

It is amazing, but before P.I. Tchaikovsky created his tragic operatic masterpiece, Pushkin's The Queen of Spades inspired Franz Suppe to compose ... an operetta (1864); and even earlier - in 1850 - the French composer Jacques Francois Fromental Halévy wrote the opera of the same name (however, there is little left of Pushkin here: the libretto was written by Scribe, using the translation of The Queen of Spades into French, made in 1843 by Prosper Mérimée; in this opera the hero's name is changed, the old countess is turned into a young Polish princess, and so on). These, of course, are curious circumstances, which can only be learned from musical encyclopedias - these works do not represent artistic value.

The plot of The Queen of Spades, proposed to the composer by his brother, Modest Ilyich, did not immediately interest Tchaikovsky (as did the plot of Eugene Onegin in his time), but when he nevertheless mastered his imagination, Tchaikovsky began to work on the opera "with self-forgetfulness and pleasure” (as well as over “Eugene Onegin”), and the opera (in the clavier) was written in an amazingly short time - in 44 days. In a letter to N.F. von Meck P.I. Tchaikovsky tells how he came up with the idea of writing an opera based on this plot: “It happened in this way: three years ago my brother Modest began to compose a libretto for the plot of The Queen of Spades at the request of a certain Klenovsky, but this latter gave up composing music in the end, for some reason unable to cope with his task. Meanwhile, the director of the theaters, Vsevolozhsky, was carried away by the idea that I should write an opera on this very plot, and, moreover, by all means for the next season. He expressed this desire to me, and since it coincided with my decision to flee Russia in January and take up writing, I agreed ... I really want to work, and if I manage to get a good job somewhere in a cozy corner abroad - it seems to me that I will master my task and submit the keyboardist to the directorate by May, and in the summer I will instrument it.

Tchaikovsky left for Florence and began work on The Queen of Spades on January 19, 1890. The surviving draft sketches give an idea of how and in what sequence the work proceeded: this time the composer wrote almost “in a row” (in contrast to “Eugene Onegin”, the composition of which began with the scene of Tatyana's letter). The intensity of this work is amazing: from January 19 to 28, the first picture is composed, from January 29 to February 4 - the second picture, from February 5 to 11 - the fourth picture, from February 11 to 19 - the third picture, etc.

The libretto of the opera is very different from the original. Pushkin's work is prose, the libretto is poetic, and with verses not only by the librettist and the composer himself, but also by Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov. Pushkin's Lisa is a poor pupil of a rich old countess; in Tchaikovsky, she is her granddaughter, “in order, as the librettist explains, “to make Herman’s love for her more natural”; it is not clear, however, why his love would be less "natural" for the poor girl. In addition, there is no clarified question about her parents - who, where they are, what happened to them. Pushkin's Hermann (sic!) is from the Germans, that's why this is the spelling of his last name, Tchaikovsky does not know anything about his German origin, and in the opera "Hermann" (with one "n") is perceived simply as a name. Prince Yeletsky, who appears in the opera, is absent from Pushkin. Count Tomsky, whose relationship with the countess is not noted in the opera, and where he is introduced by an outsider (just an acquaintance of Herman, like other players), Pushkin is her grandson; this apparently explains his knowledge of the family secret. The action of Pushkin's drama takes place in the era of Alexander I, while the opera takes us - this was the idea of the director of the imperial theaters, I.A. Vsevolozhsky - into the era of Catherine. The finals of the drama in Pushkin and Tchaikovsky are also different: in Pushkin, Hermann, although he goes crazy (“He is in the Obukhov hospital in the 17th room”), still does not die, and Lisa, moreover, gets married relatively safely; in Tchaikovsky, both heroes die. One can give many more examples of differences - both external and internal - in the interpretation of events and characters by Pushkin and Tchaikovsky.

INTRODUCTION

The opera begins with an orchestral introduction based on three contrasting musical images. The first theme is the theme of Tomsky's story (from his ballad) about the old countess. The second theme describes the countess herself, and the third is passionately lyrical (the image of Herman's love for Lisa).

ACT I

Picture 1."Spring. Summer garden. Area. Nurses, governesses and wet nurses sit on benches and walk around the garden. Children play with burners, others jump over ropes, throw balls.” This is the composer's first remark in the score. In this everyday scene, there are choirs of nannies and governesses, and a fervent march of boys: the boy commander walks ahead, he gives commands (“Musket ahead of you! Take the muzzle! Musket to your foot!”), The rest perform his commands, then, drumming and trumpeting, they leave. Other children follow the boys. The nannies and governesses disperse, giving way to other walkers.

Enter Chekalinsky and Surin, two officers. Chekalinsky asks how the game (of cards) in which Surin took part ended the day before. Too bad, he, Surin, lost. The conversation turns to Herman, who also comes, but does not play, but only watches. In general, his behavior is rather strange, “as if he has at least three villains in his heart,” says Surin. Herman himself enters, thoughtful and gloomy. Count Tomsky is with him. They are talking to each other. Tomsky asks Herman what is happening to him, why he has become so gloomy. Herman reveals a secret to him: he is passionately in love with beautiful stranger. He talks about it in the arioso "I don't know her name." Tomsky is surprised by such passion of Herman (“Is that you, Herman? I confess, I would not believe anyone that you are capable of loving like that!”). They pass, and the stage is again filled with walkers. Their choir sounds “Finally, God sent a sunny day!” - a sharp contrast to Herman's gloomy mood (critics who considered these and similar episodes in the opera superfluous, for example, V. Baskin, the author of the first critical essay on the life and work of Tchaikovsky (1895), apparently underestimated the expressive power of these mood contrasts. They walk in the garden and old women, and old men, and young ladies, and young people talk about the weather, they all sing at the same time.

Herman and Tomsky reappear. They continue the conversation that was interrupted for the viewer with their previous departure (“Are you sure that she doesn’t notice you?” Tomsky asks Herman). Prince Yeletsky enters. Chekalinsky and Surin go to him. They congratulate the prince on the fact that he is now the groom. Herman is interested in who the bride is. At this moment, the Countess enters with Liza. The prince points to Liza - here is his bride. Herman is desperate. The Countess and Lisa notice Herman and both of them are seized with an ominous premonition. "I'm scared," they sing together. The same phrase - a wonderful dramatic find by the composer - begins the poems of Herman, Tomsky and Yeletsky, which they sing simultaneously with the Countess and Lisa, expressing further each of their feelings and forming a wonderful quintet - the central episode of the scene.

With the end of the quintet, Count Tomsky approaches the countess, Prince Yeletsky approaches Liza. Herman stays away, and the Countess looks at him intently. Tomsky turns to the countess and congratulates her. She, as if not hearing his congratulations, asks him about the officer, who is he? Tomsky explains that this is German, his friend. He and the Countess retreat to the back of the stage. Prince Yeletsky offers his hand to Lisa; it radiates joy and delight. Herman sees this with undisguised jealousy and sings, as if talking to himself: “Rejoice, friend! You forgot that after a quiet day there is a thunderstorm! With these words of his, a distant rumble of thunder is indeed heard.

The men (here Herman, Tomsky, Surin and Chekalinsky; Prince Yeletsky had left with Lisa earlier) start talking about the countess. Everyone agrees that she is a "witch", "a monster", "an eighty-year-old hag." Tomsky (according to Pushkin, her grandson), however, knows something about her that no one knows. “Many years ago the Countess was known as a beauty in Paris” - this is how he begins his ballad and talks about how the Countess once lost her entire fortune. Then the Count of Saint-Germain offered her - at the price of a mere "rendez-vous" - to show her three cards, which, if she bet on them, would return her to her fortune. The Countess got her revenge... but what a price! Twice she revealed the secret of these cards: the first time to her husband, the second - to a young handsome man. But a ghost that appeared to her that night warned her that she would receive a mortal blow from a third, who, passionately loving, would come to recognize the three cards by force. Everyone perceives this story as a funny story and even, laughing, advise Herman to take advantage of the opportunity. There is a strong thunderclap. A thunderstorm is playing out. Walkers rush in different directions. Herman, before he himself escapes from the storm, swears that Lisa will be his or he will die. So, in the first picture, Herman's dominant feeling is love for Lisa. Something will come next...

Picture 2. Lisa's room. Door to the balcony overlooking the garden. Liza at the harpsichord. Near her Polina; friends are here. Liza and Polina sing an idyllic duet to the words of Zhukovsky ("It's evening ... the edges of the clouds have faded"). Friends express their delight. Lisa asks Polina to sing one. Polina sings. Her romance "Dear Friends" sounds gloomy and doomed. It's like resurrecting the old good times- it is not for nothing that the accompaniment in it sounds on the harpsichord. Here the librettist used Batyushkov's poem. It formulates an idea that was first expressed in the 17th century in a Latin phrase that then became catchy: "Et in Arcadia ego", meaning: "And (even) in Arcadia (that is, in paradise) I (that is, death) (is) »; in the 18th century, that is, at the time that is remembered in the opera, this phrase was rethought, and now it meant: "And I once lived in Arcadia" (which is a violation of the grammar of the Latin original), and this is what Polina sings about : "And I, like you, lived in Arcadia happy." This latin phrase it was often possible to meet on tombstones (N. Poussin depicted such a scene twice); Polina, like Liza, accompanying herself on the harpsichord, ends her romance with the words: “But what happened to me in these joyful places? Grave!”) Everyone is touched and excited. But now Polina herself wants to bring in a more cheerful note and offers to sing “Russian in honor of the bride and groom!” (that is, Lisa and Prince Yeletsky). Girlfriends clap their hands. Liza, not taking part in the fun, is standing by the balcony. Polina and her friends sing, then start dancing. The governess enters and puts an end to the merriment of the girls, reporting that the countess, having heard the noise, was angry. The ladies disperse. Lisa accompanies Polina. The maid enters (Masha); she extinguishes the candles, leaving only one, and wants to close the balcony, but Lisa stops her.

Left alone, Liza indulges in thoughts, she quietly cries. Her arioso “Where do these tears come from” sounds. Liza turns to the night and confides to her the secret of her soul: “She is gloomy, like you, she is like a look of sad eyes, who took peace and happiness from me ...”

Herman appears at the door of the balcony. Lisa retreats in horror. They silently look at each other. Lisa makes a move to leave. Herman begs her not to leave. Lisa is confused, she is ready to scream. Herman takes out a pistol, threatening that he will kill himself - "one or with others." The big duet of Lisa and Herman is full of passionate impulse. Herman exclaims: “Beauty! Goddess! Angel!" He kneels before Lisa. Gently and sadly, his arioso “Forgive me, heavenly creature, that I disturbed your peace” sounds - one of Tchaikovsky's best tenor arias.

Footsteps are heard behind the door. The Countess, alarmed by the noise, heads towards Lisa's room. She knocks on the door, demands that Liza open it (she opens it), enters; with her maids with candles. Liza manages to hide Herman behind the curtain. The countess angrily reprimands her granddaughter for not sleeping, for the door to the balcony is open, which worries her grandmother - and in general not to dare to start stupid things. The Countess leaves.

Herman recalls the fateful words: “Who, passionately loving, will come to surely learn from you three cards, three cards, three cards!” Lisa shuts the door behind the countess, goes to the balcony, opens it and gestures for Herman to leave. Herman begs her not to send him away. To leave means to die for him. "Not! Live!” exclaims Lisa. Herman impulsively embraces her; she rests her head on his shoulder. "Gorgeous! Goddess! Angel! Love you!" Herman sings ecstatically.

ACT II

The second act contains the contrast of two scenes, of which the first (in order in the opera - the third) takes place at the ball, and the second (fourth) - in the bedroom of the countess.

Picture 3. A masquerade ball in the home of a wealthy metropolitan (naturally, St. Petersburg) nobleman. Great Hall. On the sides, between the columns, lodges are arranged. The guests are dancing contradans. Singers sing in the choirs. Their singing reproduces the style of greeting chants of the Catherine era. Herman's old acquaintances - Chekalinsky, Surin, Tomsky - gossip about the state of mind of our hero: one believes that his mood is so changeable - "He was gloomy, then he became cheerful" - because he is in love (Chekalinsky thinks so), the other (Surin ) already says with confidence that Herman is obsessed with the desire to learn three cards. Deciding to tease him, they leave.

The hall is empty. Servants enter to prepare the middle of the stage for a sideshow performance, a traditional entertainment at balls. Prince Yeletsky and Liza are passing by. The prince is puzzled by Lisa's coldness towards him. He sings about his feelings for her in the famous aria "I love you, I love you immensely." We do not hear Lisa's answer - they leave. Herman enters. He has a note in his hand, and he reads it: “After the performance, wait for me in the hall. I must see you...” Chekalinsky and Surin reappear, with several more people; they tease Herman.

The manager appears and, on behalf of the host, invites guests to the sideshow performance. It's called "The Sincerity of the Shepherdess". (From the above list of actors and performers of this performance in the performance, the reader already knows which of the guests at the ball is participating in it). This pastoral stylization of music of the 18th century (even the genuine motifs of Mozart and Bortnyansky slip through). The pastoral is over. Herman notices Liza; she is wearing a mask. Lisa turns to him (a distorted melody of love sounds in the orchestra: a turning point has occurred in Herman's mind, now he is led not by love for Lisa, but by the haunting thought of three cards). She gives him the key to a secret door in the garden so that he can get into her house. Lisa is expecting him tomorrow, but Herman intends to be with her today.

An agitated manager appears. He reports that the Empress, of course, Catherine, is about to appear at the ball. (It is her appearance that makes it possible to specify the time of the opera: “no later than 1796,” since Catherine II died that year. In general, Tchaikovsky had difficulties with the introduction of the Empress in the opera - the same that N.A. Rimsky had previously encountered -Korsakov when staging The Pskovite Woman.The fact is that back in the 40s, Nicholas I, by his highest command, forbade the appearance of the reigning persons of the Romanov dynasty on the opera stage (and in dramas and tragedies this was allowed); it will be good if the tsar or tsarina suddenly sing a song.P.I.Tchaikovsky's letter to the director of the imperial theaters I.A.Vsevolozhsky is known, in which he, in particular, writes: Catherine by the end of the 3rd picture.”) Strictly speaking, this picture ends only with preparations for the meeting of the empress: “The men stand in a pose of a low court bow. The ladies take a deep squat. Pages appear" - this is the author's last remark in this picture. The choir praises Catherine and exclaims: “Vivat! Vivat!

Picture 4. Bedroom of the Countess, illuminated by lamps. Herman enters through a hidden door. He looks around the room: "Everything is as she told me." Herman is determined to find out the secret from the old woman. He goes to Liza's door, but his attention is drawn to the portrait of the Countess; he stops to examine it. Midnight strikes. “Ah, here she is, “Venus of Moscow”!” - he argues, looking at the portrait of the countess (obviously depicted in her youth; Pushkin describes two portraits: one depicted a man of about forty, the other - "a young beauty with an aquiline nose, with combed temples and with a rose in powdered hair"). The resounding steps frighten Herman, he hides behind the curtain of the boudoir. The maid runs in and hastily lights the candles. Other maids and hangers-on come running after her. The Countess enters, surrounded by bustling maids and hangers-on; their choir sounds ("Our Benefactor").

Enter Liza and Masha. Lisa releases Masha, and she realizes that Lisa is waiting for Herman. Now Masha knows everything: “I chose him as my husband,” Lisa opens up to her. They are going away.

Dwellers and maids introduce the countess. She is in a dressing gown and a night cap. They put her to bed. But she, speaking rather strangely ("I'm tired... No urine... I don't want to sleep in bed"), sits down in an armchair; she is covered with pillows. Scolding modern manners, she reminisces about her French life while she sings (in French) an aria from Gretry's "Richard the Lionheart". (A funny anachronism, which Tchaikovsky could not be unaware of - he simply did not attach importance to historical authenticity in this case; although, as far as Russian life was concerned, he tried to preserve it. So, this opera was written by Grétry in 1784, and if the action of the opera " The Queen of Spades "refers to the end of the 18th century and the countess is now an eighty-year-old old woman, then in the year of the creation of" Richard "she was at least seventy" and the French king ("The King heard me," the countess recalled) would hardly have listened to her singing; such Thus, if the countess ever sang for the king, it was much earlier, long before the creation of "Richard".)

As she sings her aria, the Countess gradually falls asleep. Herman appears from behind a hiding place and confronts the Countess. She wakes up and moves her lips silently in horror. He begs her not to be frightened (the countess silently, as if in a daze, continues to look at him). Herman asks, begs her to reveal to him the secret of the three cards. He kneels before her. The Countess, straightening up, looks menacingly at Herman. He beckons her. " Old witch! So I'll make you answer!" he exclaims, and draws his pistol. The countess nods her head, raises her arms to shield herself from the shot, and falls dead. Herman approaches the corpse, takes his hand. Only now does he realize what happened - the countess is dead, and he did not know the secret.

Liza enters. She sees Herman here, in the Countess's room. She is surprised: what is he doing here? Herman points to the corpse of the countess and exclaims in despair that he has not learned the secret. Lisa rushes to the corpse, sobs - she is killed by what happened and, most importantly, that Herman needed not her, but the secret of the cards. "Monster! Killer! Monster!" - she exclaims (cf. with him, Herman: "Beauty! Goddess! Angel!"). Herman runs away. Liza sobs down on the lifeless body of the Countess.

ACT III

Picture 5. Barracks. Herman's room. Late evening. Moonlight now illuminates the room through the window, then disappears. Howl of the wind. Herman is sitting at the table near the candle. He reads Lisa's letter: she sees that he did not want the death of the countess, and will be waiting for him on the embankment. If he does not come before midnight, she will have to admit a terrible thought ... Herman sinks into an armchair in deep thought. He dreams that he hears a choir of singers who are funerals for the countess. He is terrified. He sees steps. He runs to the door, but there he is stopped by the ghost of the Countess. Herman retreats. The ghost is coming. The ghost turns to Herman with the words that he came against his will. He orders Herman to save Liza, marry her and reveals the secret of three cards: three, seven, ace. Having said this, the ghost immediately disappears. Distraught Herman repeats these cards.

Picture 6. Night. Winter Ditch. In the depths of the stage - the embankment and the Peter and Paul Church, illuminated by the moon. Under the arch, all in black, stands Liza. She is waiting for Herman and sings her aria, one of the most famous in the opera - "Ah, I'm tired, I'm tired!". The clock strikes midnight. Lisa desperately calls on Herman - he is still gone. Now she is sure that he is a killer. Lisa wants to run, but Herman enters. Lisa is happy: Herman is here, he is not a villain. The end of the torment has come! Herman kisses her. “The end of our painful torment,” they echo each other. But you can't delay. The clock is running. And Herman urges Lisa to run away with him. But where? Of course, to the gambling house - “There are piles of gold for me too, they belong to me alone!” he assures Lisa. Now Lisa finally understands that Herman is insane. Herman confesses that he raised the gun on the "old witch". Now for Lisa, he is a killer. Herman repeats three cards in ecstasy, laughs and pushes Liza away. She, unable to bear it, runs to the embankment and throws herself into the river.

Picture 7. Gambling house. Dinner. Some players play cards. The guests sing: "Let's drink and be merry." Surin, Chaplitsky, Chekalinsky, Arumov, Tomsky, Yeletsky exchange remarks about the game. Prince Yeletsky is here for the first time. He is no longer a fiance and hopes that he will be lucky in the cards, since he was not lucky in love. Tomsky is asked to sing something. He sings a rather ambiguous song "If only lovely girls" (her words belong to G.R. Derzhavin). Everyone picks up her last words. In the midst of the game and fun enters Herman. Yeletsky asks Tomsky to be his second if necessary. He agrees. Everyone is struck by the strangeness of Herman's appearance. He asks permission to take part in the game. The game starts. Herman bets on three - wins. He continues the game. Now it's seven. And win again. Herman laughs hysterically. Requires wine. With a glass in hand, he sings his famous aria “What is our life? - The game!" Prince Yeletsky enters the game. This round is really like a duel: Herman announces an ace, but instead of an ace, he has the queen of spades in his hands. At this moment, the ghost of the Countess appears. Everyone retreats from Herman. He is horrified. He curses the old woman. In a fit of madness, he is stabbed to death. The ghost disappears. Several people rush to the fallen Herman. He is still alive. Coming to his senses and seeing the prince, he tries to get up. He asks for forgiveness from the prince. AT last minute a bright image of Lisa appears in his mind. The choir of those present sings: “Lord! Forgive him! And rest his rebellious and tormented soul."

A. Maykapar

The score is distinguished by a number of features. The coloring of the first act is close to that of Carmen (especially the march of the boys), here Herman's heartfelt arioso, recalling Lisa, stands out. Then the action is suddenly transferred to the living room of the late 18th - early 19th century, in which a pathetic duet sounds, oscillating between major and minor, accompanied by obligatory flutes. In the appearance of German in front of Lisa, one feels the power of fate (and his melody is somewhat reminiscent of Verdi's "Force of Destiny"); the countess introduces a grave cold, and the ominous thought of three cards poisons the mind of the young man. In the scene of his meeting with the old woman, Herman's stormy, desperate recitative and aria, accompanied by vicious, repetitive sounds of wood, signify the collapse of the unfortunate man, who loses his mind in the next scene with a ghost, truly expressionistic, with echoes of "Boris Godunov" (but with a richer orchestra) . Then follows the death of Liza: a very tender sympathetic melody sounds against a terrible funeral background. Herman's death is less majestic, but not without tragic dignity. This double suicide once again testifies to the composer's decadent romanticism, which made so many hearts tremble and still constitutes the most popular side of his music. However, behind this passionate and tragic picture lies a formal construction inherited from neoclassicism. Tchaikovsky wrote well about this in 1890: "Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann composed their immortal creations in exactly the same way as a shoemaker sews boots." Thus, in the first place is the skill of the craftsman, and only then - inspiration. As for The Queen of Spades, she was immediately accepted by the public as a great success for the composer.

G. Marchesi (translated by E. Greceanii)

History of creation

Shortly after the publication of his short story (1833), Pushkin wrote in his diary: “My Queen of Spades is in great fashion. Players ponting for three, seven, ace. The popularity of the story was explained not only by the amusing plot, but also by the realistic reproduction of the types and customs of St. Petersburg society at the beginning of the 19th century. In the libretto of the opera, written by the composer's brother M. I. Tchaikovsky (1850-1916), the content of Pushkin's story is largely rethought. Lisa from a poor pupil turned into a rich granddaughter of the countess. Pushkin's Herman, a cold, prudent egoist, possessed only by a thirst for enrichment, appears in Tchaikovsky's music as a man with a fiery imagination and strong passions. The difference in the social status of the characters introduced the theme of social inequality into the opera. With high tragic pathos, it reflects the fate of people in a society subject to the merciless power of money. Herman is a victim of this society; the desire for wealth imperceptibly becomes his obsession, obscuring his love for Lisa and leading him to death.

Music

The seventh picture begins with everyday episodes: the drinking song of the guests, the frivolous song of Tomsky “If only dear girls” (to the words of G. R. Derzhavin). With the advent of Herman, the music becomes nervously excited. Anxiously alert septet "Something's wrong here" conveys the excitement that gripped the players. Rapture of victory and cruel joy are heard in Herman's aria “What is our life? The game!". In the dying moment, his thoughts are again turned to Lisa - a quiveringly tender image of love appears in the orchestra.

M. Druskin

After more than ten years of complex, often contradictory searches, along the way of which there were both bright interesting discoveries and unfortunate miscalculations, Tchaikovsky comes to the greatest of his achievements in operatic creativity, creating the Queen of Spades, which is not inferior in strength and depth of expression to his symphonic masterpieces like Manfred, the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. On none of his operas, with the exception of Eugene Onegin, did he work with such ardent enthusiasm, which, by the composer's own admission, reached "self-forgetfulness". Tchaikovsky was so deeply captured by the whole atmosphere of the action and the images of the characters in The Queen of Spades that he perceived them as real living people. Having finished sketching the opera with feverish speed (The whole work was completed in 44 days - from January 19 to March 3, 1890. The orchestration was completed in June of that year.), he wrote to his brother Modest Ilyich, the author of the libretto: “... when I got to the death of Herman and the final choir, I felt so sorry for Herman that I suddenly began to cry a lot<...>It turns out that Herman was not only a pretext for me to write this or that music, but all the time a living person ... ". In another letter to the same addressee, Tchaikovsky admits: “In other places, for example, in the fourth picture, which I arranged today, I feel such fear, horror and shock that it cannot be that the listener does not experience at least part of it.”

Written based on Pushkin's story of the same name, Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades deviates in many respects from the literary source: some plot moves have been changed, the characters and actions of the characters received different coverage. In Pushkin, German is a man of one passion, straightforward, prudent and tough, ready to put his own and other people's lives at stake in order to achieve his goal. In Tchaikovsky, he is internally broken, is in the grip of conflicting feelings and drives, the tragic irreconcilability of which leads him to inevitable death. The image of Lisa was subjected to a radical rethinking: the ordinary colorless Pushkin Lizaveta Ivanovna became a strong and passionate nature, selflessly devoted to her feelings, continuing the gallery of pure poetically sublime female images in Tchaikovsky's operas from Oprichnik to The Enchantress. At the request of the director of the imperial theaters, I. A. Vsevolozhsky, the action of the opera was transferred from the 30s of the 19th century to the second half of the 18th century, which gave rise to the inclusion of a picture of a magnificent ball in the palace of Catherine's nobleman with an interlude stylized in the spirit of the "gallant age" , but did not affect the overall color of the action and the characters of its main participants. In terms of the richness and complexity of their spiritual world, the sharpness and intensity of their experience, these are the composer's contemporaries, in many respects related to the heroes of Tolstoy's and Dostoevsky's psychological novels.

The compositional, dramatic and intonational analysis of The Queen of Spades is given in a number of works, dedicated to creativity Tchaikovsky as a whole or its individual types. Therefore, we will focus only on some of its most important, most characteristic features. The Queen of Spades is the most symphonic of Tchaikovsky's operas: its basis dramatic composition constitutes a consistent cross-cutting development and interweaving of three constant themes, which are the carriers of the main driving forces of action. The semantic aspect of these themes is similar to the relationship between the three main thematic sections of the Fourth and Fifth symphonies. The first of them, the dry and hard theme of the Countess, which is based on a short motif of three sounds, easily amenable to various changes, can be compared in meaning with the themes of rock in symphonic works composer. In the course of development, this motif undergoes rhythmic compression and expansion, its interval composition and modal coloring change, but with all these transformations, the formidable “knocking” rhythm that constitutes its main characteristic is preserved.

Using the words of Tchaikovsky, uttered in another connection, we can say that this is a “grain”, “certainly the main idea» of the whole work. This theme serves not so much as an individual characteristic of the image, but as the embodiment of a mysterious, inexorably fatal beginning, gravitating over the fate of the central characters of the opera - Herman and Liza. She is ubiquitous, weaving both into the orchestral fabric and into the vocal parts of the characters (for example, Herman's arioso "If you ever knew" from the painting in the Countess's bedroom). Sometimes it takes on a delusional, fantastically distorted appearance as a reflection of the haunting thought about three cards that has settled in Herman’s sick brain: at the moment when the ghost of the dead Countess appears to him and calls them, only three slowly descending sounds in whole tones remain from the theme. The sequence of three such segments forms a complete whole-tone scale, which has served in Russian music since Glinka as a means of depicting the inanimate, mysterious and terrible. A special flavor is given to this theme by its characteristic timbre coloring: as a rule, it sounds in the deaf low register of a clarinet, bass clarinet or bassoon, and only in the final scene, before Herman's fatal loss, it is gloomy and menacingly intoned by brass together with string basses as an inevitable judgment of fate.

Closely connected with the theme of the Countess is another the most important topic- three cards. The similarity is manifested both in the motive structure, consisting of three links of three sounds each, and in the immediate intonational proximity of individual melodic turns.

Even before its appearance in Tomsky's ballad, the theme of the three cards in a somewhat modified form sounds in the mouth of Herman ("weekend" arioso "I don't know her name"), from the very beginning emphasizing his doom.

In the process of further development, the theme takes on a different form and sounds either tragic or mournfully lyrical, and some of its turns are heard even in recitative cues.

Third, widely chanted lyrical theme love with an excited sequential rise to the melodic peak and a smoothly, undulating second half is in contrast to both previous ones. It develops especially widely in the scene of Herman and Lisa, which completes the second picture, reaching an enthusiastic, intoxicatingly passionate sound. In the future, as Herman becomes more and more possessed by the crazy thought of three cards, the theme of love recedes into the background, only occasionally appearing in the form of brief fragments, and only in the final scene of Herman's death, dying with the name of Lisa on his lips, again sounds clear and uncomplicated. There comes a moment of catharsis, purification - terrible delusional visions dissipate, and a bright feeling of love triumphs over all horrors and nightmares.

A high degree of symphonic generalization is combined in The Queen of Spades with a bright and colorful stage action, replete with sharp contrasts, changes of light and shadow. The most acute conflict situations alternate with distracting background episodes of a domestic nature, and the development goes in the direction of increasing psychological concentration and thickening of gloomy, ominous tones. Genre elements are concentrated mainly in the first three scenes of the opera. A kind of screensaver for the main action is the scene of festivities in the Summer Garden, children's games and carefree chatter of nannies, wet nurses and governesses, against which the gloomy figure of Herman stands out, completely absorbed in thoughts of his hopeless love. The idyllic scene of entertainment of secular young ladies at the beginning of the second picture helps to set off Lisa’s sad thoughtfulness and hidden spiritual anxiety, which the thought of a mysterious stranger does not leave, and Polina’s romance, which contrasts with the pastoral duet of two friends with its gloomy color, is perceived as a direct premonition of the tragic end awaiting the heroine (As you know, according to the original plan, this romance was to be sung by Lisa herself, and the composer then handed it over to Polina for purely practical theatrical reasons, in order to provide the performer of this part with an independent solo number.).

The third scene of the ball is distinguished by a special decorative splendor, a number of episodes of which are deliberately stylized by the composer in the spirit of music of the 18th century. It is known that when composing the interlude "The Sincerity of the Shepherdess" and the final welcoming chorus, Tchaikovsky resorted to direct borrowings from the works of composers of that time. This brilliant picture of the ceremonial celebration is contrasted by two short scenes of Herman pursued by Surin and Chekalinsky, and his meeting with Liza, where fragments of the themes of three cards and love sound disturbing and disconcerting. Moving the action forward, they directly prepare the painting, central in its dramatic meaning, in the bedroom of the Countess.

In this scene, remarkable in terms of dramatic integrity and steadily increasing strength of emotional tension, all the lines of action are tied into one tight knot and the protagonist faces his fate, personified in the image of the old Countess, face to face. Sensitively responding to the slightest shifts in everything that happens on the stage, the music develops at the same time as a single continuous stream in close interaction of vocal and orchestral-symphonic elements. Except for the song from Gretry's opera "Richard the Lionheart", put by the composer into the mouth of the sleeping Countess (Many times attention was drawn to the anachronism allowed by Tchaikovsky in this case: the opera Richard the Lionheart was written in 1784, that is, approximately at the same time when the action of The Queen of Spades takes place and therefore could not be connected with memories of the youth of the Countess. But against the general background of the music of the opera, it is perceived as something distant, forgotten, and in this sense corresponds to the staged artistic task, but as for historical authenticity, it apparently did not bother the composer very much.), then in this picture there are no completed solo vocal episodes. Flexibly using various types of musical recitation from monotonous recitation on one sound or short excited cries to more melodic constructions approaching ariose singing, the composer very subtly and expressively conveys the spiritual movements of the characters.

The dramatic climax of the fourth picture is the tragically ending "duel" of Herman and the Countess (In this scene, the original Pushkin text was preserved by the librettist almost unchanged, which Tchaikovsky noted with particular satisfaction. L.V. Karagicheva, expressing a number of interesting observations on the relationship between word and music in Herman's monologue, states that only meaningful meaning, but also many of the structural and expressive means of Pushkin's text." This episode can serve as one of the most remarkable examples of the sensitive implementation of speech intonation in Tchaikovsky's vocal melody.). This scene cannot be called a dialogue in the true sense, since one of its participants does not utter a single word - the Countess remains silent to all the pleas and threats of Herman, but the orchestra speaks for her. The anger and indignation of the old aristocrat give way to a stupor of horror, and the “gurgling” passages of the clarinet and bassoon (to which the flute then joins) convey the death shudders of a lifeless body with almost naturalistic imagery.

The feverish excitement of the emotional atmosphere is combined in this picture with a great internal completeness of form, achieved both by the consistent symphonic development of the main themes of the opera, and by elements of thematic and tonal reprise. An extended precursor is a large fifty-measure construction at the beginning of the picture with uneasily soaring, and then mournfully drooping phrases of muted violins against the background of a dull vibrating dominant organ point at the violas. Long-term harmonic instability conveys Herman's feelings of anxiety and involuntary fear of what awaits him. Dominant harmony does not get resolved within this section, being replaced by a series of modulating moves (B minor, A minor, C sharp minor). Only in the stormy impetuous Vivace, which completes the fourth picture, does the steady-sounding tonic triad of its main key in F-sharp minor appear and the same disturbing melodic phrase is heard again in conjunction with the theme of the three cards, expressing Herman's despair and Lisa's horror before what happened.

The following picture, imbued with a gloomy atmosphere of insane delirium and terrible, chilling visions, is distinguished by the same symphonic integrity and tension of development: night, barracks, Herman alone on duty. The leading role belongs to the orchestra, Herman's part is limited to individual remarks of a recitative nature. The funeral singing of the church choir coming from afar, the sounds of signal military fanfare, the “whistling” passages of high wooden and stringed strings, conveying the howling of the wind outside the window - all this merges into one ominous picture, evoking disturbing forebodings. Horror gripping Herman reaches its climax with the appearance of the ghost of the dead Countess, accompanied by her leitmotif, at first muffled, secretly, and then sounding with increasing force in conjunction with the theme of three cards. In the final section of this picture, an explosion of panic horror is replaced by a sudden stupor, and the distraught Herman automatically, as if hypnotized, repeats the words of the Countess "Three, seven, ace!" at one sound, while in the orchestra the transformed theme of three cards with elements of the increased fret.

Following this, the action quickly and steadily moves towards a catastrophic denouement. Some delay is caused by the scene at the Winter Canal, which contains vulnerable moments not only from a dramatic, but also from a musical point of view. (Not without reason, it was noted by various authors that Lisa's aria in this picture does not quite correspond stylistically to the general melodic-intonational structure of her part.). But the composer needed her in order “to let the viewer know what happened to Lisa”, whose fate would have remained unclear without this. That is why he so stubbornly defended this picture in spite of the objections of Modest Ilyich and Laroche.

After three gloomy "night" scenes, the last, the seventh, takes place in bright light, the source of which, however, is not the daytime sun, but the restless flickering of the candles of the gambling house. The choir of the players “Let's sing and have fun”, interrupted by brief jerky remarks of the participants in the game, then the reckless “gamer's” song “So they gathered on rainy days” escalate the atmosphere of carbon monoxide excitement, in which Herman's last desperate game takes place, ending in loss and suicide. The theme of the Countess, which arises in the orchestra, reaches here a powerful formidable sound: only with the death of Herman does the terrible obsession disappear and the opera ends with the theme of love softly and gently sounding in the orchestra.

The great creation of Tchaikovsky became a new word not only in the work of the composer himself, but also in the development of the entire Russian opera of the last century. None of the Russian composers, except Mussorgsky, managed to achieve such an irresistible power of dramatic impact and depth of penetration into the most hidden corners. human soul, to uncover complex world subconscious, unconsciously driving our actions and deeds. It is no coincidence that this opera aroused such keen interest among a number of representatives of the new young artistic movements emerging at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. twenty years old Alexandre Benois after the premiere of The Queen of Spades, he mastered, as he later recalled, "a kind of frenzy of delight." “Undoubtedly,” he wrote, “that the author himself knew that he had managed to create something beautiful and unique, something that expressed his whole soul, his whole worldview.<...>He had the right to expect that the Russian people would thank him for this.<...>As for me, my delight in The Queen of Spades included just such a feeling thanks. Through these sounds, I really somehow revealed a lot of the mysterious that I saw around me. It is known that A. A. Blok, M. A. Kuzmin and other poets of the early 20th century were interested in The Queen of Spades. The impact of this opera by Tchaikovsky on the development of Russian art was strong and deep, in a number of literary and pictorial (in lesser degree musical) works directly reflected the impressions of getting to know her. And until now, The Queen of Spades remains one of the unsurpassed pinnacles of the classical opera heritage.

Y. Keldysh

Discography: CD-Dante. Dir. Lynching, German (Khanaev), Lisa (Derzhinskaya), Countess (Petrova), Tomsky (Baturin), Yeletsky (Selivanov), Polina (Obukhova) - Philips. Dir. Gergiev, German (Grigoryan), Lisa (Gulegina), Countess (Arkhipova), Tomsky (Putilin), Yeletsky (Chernov), Polina (Borodina) - RCA Victor. Dir. Ozawa, German (Atlantov), Lisa (Freni), Countess (Forrester), Tomsky (Leiferkus), Yeletsky (Hvorostovsky), Polina (Katherine Chesinsky).