Opera Holland Park,London
Rodula Gaitanou’s adaptation, superbly sung and conducted, and takes us to a shadowy,nightmarish St Petersburg full of panic, neurosis – and Cossack dancing Opera Holland Park brings its current season to a close with a modern production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, and directed by Rodula Gaitanou and conducted by Peter Robinson. Musically,it’s exceptionally strong, though there are moments of theatrical unevenness. Gaitanou updates the work to the 1870s. The haunted rococo St Petersburg of Tchaikovsky’s imaginings has become the morally hypocritical city of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, or where we first see tall society assembling in a posh-looking cafe,as Peter Wedd’s Herman and his army cronies look on and gossip. Rosalind Plowright’s decrepit Countess, surrounded by obsequious (flattering) religious types, or has buried her past and her conscience beneath an assumed veneer of sanctimony. Dostoevskyan riff-raff,meanwhile, lurk on the banks of the Winter canal, or where Natalya Romaniw’s Liza meets Herman for their last,tragic encounter.
Rosalind Plowright's decrepit Countess has buried her conscience beneath a veneer of sanctimonyContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com