Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece pulses with humanity

The Queen of Spades

Grange Festival, Hants

★★★★★

There could hardly be a better time to remind ourselves of the elemental power and humanity of the greatest art produced in Russia. The Grange Festival has achieved that in this fine new production of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece The Queen of Spades, and it has gathered some singers displaced from their native lands by the current war to give them debuts at the festival. This brings some compelling authenticity to the opera, and ramps up the drama – much as Tchaikovsky himself ramped up the conflicts in the story that he took from Pushkin.

The original tale had a drably prosaic outcome: the peasant girl Liza, torn with love for Herman, marries a dull civil servant, while Herman, driven mad by his pursuit of gambling, is committed to a mental asylum. This was not bold enough for the composer: in his opera, Liza is the granddaughter of an imposing Countess, while Herman is truly in love with her but sacrifices his life to the pursuit of the “three-card trick” whose secret the Countess holds. It is a tragic tale magnificently told, and this straightforwardly effective production by Paul Curran makes no pretence to contradict or elaborate it.

Gary McCann’s interlocking walls, moving round to create a bedroom, a ceremonial hall, or a gambling den, provide an elegant framework. The characters are boldly drawn, though in some cases too strongly sung: Eduard Martynyuk (who has been singing in Ukraine) as Herman is initially too barkingly insistent, but warms as the evening progresses and the complexity of his motivation emerges, while Andrei Kymach (a former Cardiff Singer of the World winner) is outstanding as Count Tomsky.

Most eloquent of all, Anush Hovhannisyan as Liza breathes tragedy from the very start with her exquisite tone and gently shaped phrases, as she becomes aware that Herman is more driven by his attraction to the card-trick than to her. She dies not by dramatic suicide but by wandering into the reeds and is seen no more – unlike the Countess, in a magnificent cameo by Josephine Barstow, who after her death returns to haunt Herman and

Anush Hovhannisyan breathes tragedy from the very start with her exquisite tone

dominates the opera’s final picture.

Curran’s direction skilfully animates the busy set-pieces and the pastoral interlude, and in one nice little gloss adds a jokey appearance by a parody Catherine the Great. Supporting it all, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is strongly led by Paul Daniel: the composer’s resourceful orchestration resounds, and once past a rather unsteady Quintet in the first act, the tension builds strongly to a shattering climax.

Grange Festival continues until Sunday. Tickets: thegrangefestival.co.uk

Tragic tale: Eduard Martynyuk as Herman and Anush Hovhannisyan as Liza