Mysteries of the opera libretto of the Queen of Spades. "Queen of Spades"

History of creation

Tchaikovsky was repeatedly offered to write an opera based on Pushkin’s plot; even, as the composer recalled, “they pestered him for two years,” but he did not see the proper scenic quality in Pushkin’s story, and was not particularly captivated by its characters. Indeed, the story is written in a rather detached language and has a protagonist who does not evoke heartfelt sympathy. Pushkin’s Herman is cold and calculating, he will never “sacrifice what is necessary in the hope of acquiring what is superfluous,” Lisa for him is only a means on the path to enrichment - it is easy to agree that such a character could not captivate Tchaikovsky, who always needed to love his hero. And only when, in his own words, he appreciated that “the scene in the countess’s bedroom is magnificent,” the creation of the opera “went on and on.”

Much in the opera does not correspond to Pushkin's story: the time of action, the characters of the characters. Tchaikovsky's Herman is an ardent, romantic hero with strong passions and a fiery imagination; he loves Lisa, and only gradually the secret of the three cards displaces her image from Herman’s consciousness. Tchaikovsky's Lisa is not poor pupil Lizaveta Ivanovna, she is the granddaughter and heir of the Old Countess - and this is already a social conflict. The events of the opera take place during the time of Catherine II (the director of the Imperial Theaters insisted on this, who was concerned about the splendor of the production), but Tchaikovsky’s heroes are not people of the 18th century, they are not even contemporaries of Pushkin, they are contemporaries of the composer himself, especially Herman, who was literally born of the spirit years when the opera was created.

“The Queen of Spades” was written in an unusually short time, in just 44 days, and is one of those great works in which the author managed to express himself and his time.

Characters

• Herman -
• Count Tomsky -
• Prince Yeletsky - baritone
• Chekalinsky - tenor
• Surin -
• Chaplitsky - tenor
• Arumov - bass
• Manager - tenor
• Countess -
• Lisa -
• Polina -
• The Governess - mezzo-soprano
• Masha - soprano
• Boy Commander - no singing

Characters in the interlude:

• Prilepa - soprano
• Milovzor (Polina) - conralto
• Zlatogor (Count Tomsky) - baritone

Nannies, governesses, strollers, the master of the ball, guests, children, players.

Summary

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

First action

First picture. Sunny Summer Garden filled with a walking crowd. Officers Surin and Chekalinsky share their impressions of the strange behavior of their friend German: he spends nights in a gambling house, but does not even try his luck. Soon Herman himself appears, accompanied by Count Tomsky. Herman admits that he is passionately in love, although he does not know the name of his chosen one. Prince Yeletsky, who joined the company of officers, talks about his imminent 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, who noticed the burning gaze of the unfortunate Herman, are overcome with heavy forebodings. Tomsky tells his friends a social anecdote about a countess who, as 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: “Once she told her husband those cards, another time their handsome young man found out, but that same night, as soon as she was left alone, the ghost appeared to her and menacingly said: “You will receive a mortal blow from the third, who, ardently, passionately loving, will come to forcefully learn from you three cards, three cards, three cards.” "" Herman listens to the story with special tension. His friends make fun of him and offer to find out the secret of the cards from the old woman. A thunderstorm begins. In the midst of the raging elements, Herman exclaims: "No, prince! While I’m alive, I won’t give it to you, I don’t know how, but I’ll take it away!”

Second picture. Twilight. The girls try to cheer up the saddened Lisa. Left alone, Lisa confides her secret to the night: “And my whole soul is in his power!” - she confesses her love for a mysterious stranger. Suddenly Herman appears on the balcony. His passionate explanation captivates Lisa. The knock of the awakened Countess interrupts them. Herman, hiding behind the curtain, is excited by the very sight of the old woman, in whose face he imagines a terrible ghost of death. Unable to hide her feelings any longer, Lisa surrenders to Herman's power.

Second act

First picture. Ball. Yeletsky, alarmed by Lisa's coldness, assures her of his love. Friends in masks mock Herman: “Aren’t 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 interlude "The Sincerity of the Shepherdess", he encounters the Countess. Having received the keys to the Countess’s secret door from Lisa, German perceives this as an omen. Tonight he will learn the secret of the three cards.

Second picture. Herman sneaks into the Countess's bedroom. With trepidation, he peers at her portrait in her youth. The Countess herself appears, accompanied by her hangers-on. She remembers the past with longing and falls asleep in the chair. Suddenly Herman appears in front of her, begging her to reveal the secret of the three cards: “You can make up the happiness of your whole life, and it won’t cost you anything!” But the Countess, numb with fright, remains motionless. Enraged Herman threatens with a pistol. The old woman falls. “She’s dead, but I didn’t find out the secret,” laments German, who is close to madness, in response to the reproaches of Lisa who has entered.

Third act

First picture. Herman in the barracks. He reads Lisa's letter, where she makes an appointment for him on the embankment. Pictures of the old woman’s funeral appear in my imagination, and funeral singing is heard. The ghost of the Countess appears in a white funeral shroud and says: “Save Lisa, marry her, and three cards will win in a row. Remember! Troika! Seven! Ace!" “Three... Seven... Ace...” - Herman repeats like a spell.

Second picture. Lisa is waiting for Herman on the embankment near the Winter Canal. She is torn by doubts: “Oh, I am tired, I have suffered.” When the clock strikes midnight and Lisa finally loses hope, Herman appears, at first repeating Lisa’s words of love, but already obsessed with another idea. Lisa becomes convinced that Herman is the culprit in the death of the Countess. He runs screaming into the gambling house. Lisa throws herself into the water in despair.

Third picture. Players are having fun at the card table. Tomsky entertains them with a playful song. In the midst of the game, an excited Herman appears. Twice in a row, offering large bets, he wins. “The devil himself is playing at the same time with you,” proclaim those present. The game continues. This time Prince Yeletsky is against Herman. And instead of a win-win ace, the queen of spades ends up in his hands. Herman sees the features of a dead old woman on the map: “Cursed! What do you need! My life? Take it, take it!” He stabs himself. In a cleared consciousness, the image of Lisa appears: “Beauty! Goddess! Angel!" With these words, Herman dies.

Subject: history of music

The work was completed by: Shvaova D.K.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
"Queen of Spades"

opera in 3 acts (7 scenes)

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

Action time: end of the 18th century, but not later than 1796.

Location: Petersburg.

History of creation

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

Amazingly, before P. I. Tchaikovsky created his tragic operatic masterpiece, Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” inspired Franz Suppe to write an operetta (1864); and even earlier - in 1850 - the French composer Jacques François Fromental Halévy wrote an opera of the same name (however, little remains of Pushkin here: the libretto was written by Scribe, using the translation of “The Queen of Spades” into French made in 1843 by Prosper Merimee; in In this opera, the hero's name is changed, the old countess is turned into a young Polish princess, and so on). These are, of course, curious circumstances, which can only be learned from musical encyclopedias - these works have no artistic value.

The plot of “The Queen of Spades,” proposed to the composer by his brother, Modest Ilyich, did not immediately interest Tchaikovsky (as the plot of “Eugene Onegin” had in his time), but when it finally captured his imagination, Tchaikovsky began working on the opera. Tchaikovsky was especially moved by the scene of the fatal meeting between Herman and the Countess. Its deep drama captured the composer, causing a burning desire to write an opera, and the opera (in clavier) was written in an amazingly short time - in 44 days.

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

The libretto of the opera differs to a very large extent from the original. Pushkin's work is prosaic, the libretto is poetic, with poems not only by the librettist and the composer himself, but also by Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov. Lisa turned from a poor pupil into the rich granddaughter of a countess. Pushkin's Herman - a cold, calculating egoist, gripped only by the 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 introduces 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: the desire for wealth invariably becomes an obsession with him, overshadowing his love for Lisa and leading to death. As a result, he begins to draw vitality from her. This opera is about death. She is completely permeated with fear and evil. There is a sense of doom here, a certain curiosity about death. The gloomy meaning is accompanied by the setting of its place of action - St. Petersburg. The Queen of Spades acts as a symbol of infernal evil.

Introduction. The opera begins with an orchestral introduction built on three contrasting musical images. The first theme is the theme of Tomsky's story about the old Countess. The second theme describes the Countess herself (whole-tone scale and squentions), and the third is passionately lyrical (the image of Herman’s love for Lisa).

Act I opens with a bright everyday scene. Choirs of nannies, governesses, and the perky march of boys clearly highlight the drama of subsequent events. Herman’s arioso “I don’t know her name,” sometimes elegiacally tender, sometimes impetuously excited, captures the purity and strength of his feelings. Moreover, the theme “I don’t know her name” is connected with the theme of the 3 cards. Here the action stops, which is not typical for development. The duet of Herman and Yeletsky confronts the sharply contrasting states of the heroes: Herman’s passionate complaints “Unfortunate day, I curse you” are intertwined with the calm, measured speech of the prince “Happy day, I bless you.” The central episode of the film is the quintet “I’m Scared!” - conveys the gloomy forebodings of the participants. In Tomsky's ballad, the chorus about three mysterious cards sounds ominously, and the intonation of a sigh is heard. The first scene ends with a stormy thunderstorm scene, against which Herman’s oath sounds. The 2nd picture is contrasting in relation to the first and breaks up into two halves - everyday and love-lyrical.

The idyllic duet of Polina and Lisa “It’s Evening” is shrouded in light sadness. It contains features of pastoralism. Polina’s romance “Dear Friends” sounds gloomy and doomed. It is contrasted by the lively dance song “Come on, Little Svetik Mashenka.” The second half of the picture opens with Lisa’s arioso “Where do these tears come from” - a heartfelt monologue full of deep feeling. From this moment the development of the picture begins. Melancholy gives way to an enthusiastic confession “Oh, listen to the night”, this is a lyrical confession in a romantic spirit. Herman’s tenderly sad and passionate arioso “Forgive me, heavenly creature.” Here he appears as a romantic knight, a groom. But such an idylistic scene is interrupted by the appearance of the Countess; the bassoon sounds, the music takes on a tragic tone; sharp, nervous rhythms and ominous orchestral colors emerge. “Oh terrible ghost of death, I don’t want you.” An image of death is created. As soon as her call is heard, Herman begins to draw vitality from Lisa in order to delay his end. The everyday is brilliantly combined with the mystical.

Act II. The second act contains a contrast between two scenes, of which the first (in order in the opera - the third) takes place at the ball, and the second (fourth) - in the Countess's bedroom. With the introduction of the Empress in the opera, Tchaikovsky encountered difficulties - the same ones that N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov previously encountered when staging “The Woman of Pskov.” The fact is that even 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 this was allowed in dramas and tragedies); This was explained by the fact that it would not be good if the king or queen suddenly started singing a song. There is a well-known letter from P. I. Tchaikovsky to the director of the imperial theaters I. A. Vsevolozhsky, in which he, in particular, writes: “I flatter myself with the hope that Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich will settle the issue of Catherine’s appearance by the end of the 3rd picture.”) Strictly speaking, this picture ends only with preparations for the meeting of the empress: “The men take a position of low court bow. Ladies squat deeply. Pages appear” - this is the author’s last remark in this picture. The choir praises Catherine and exclaims: “Vivat! Vivat!

In the 3rd scene, scenes of metropolitan life become the backdrop of the developing drama. The opening chorus in the spirit of the greeting cants of Catherine’s era is a kind of screensaver of the picture. Prince Yeletsky’s aria “I love you” depicts his nobility and restraint. The pastoral “The Sincerity of the Shepherdess” is a stylization of 18th-century music: elegant, graceful choruses and dances frame the idyllic love duet of Prilepa and Milovzor. In the finale, at the moment of the meeting of Lisa and Herman, a distorted melody of love sounds in the orchestra: a turning point has occurred in Herman’s consciousness, from now on he is guided not by love, but by the persistent thought of three cards. The 4th scene, central to 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. But the introduction is gloomy and nervous. Choir of the Revenants (“Our Benefactor”). Scolding modern manners, the Countess reminisces about her French life, while she sings (in French) an aria from Grétry's opera Richard the Lionheart. And here the author makes a chronological mistake, which Tchaikovsky could not have been unaware of - he simply in this case did not attach importance to historical authenticity (although, as regards Russian life, 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” dates back 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; Thus, if the Countess once sang for the king, it was much earlier, long before the creation of “Richard.”) While performing her aria, the Countess gradually falls asleep. The song gives way to music of an ominously hidden nature. It is contrasted by Herman’s arioso “If you ever knew the feeling of love,” imbued with a passionate feeling. Herman appears from behind cover and confronts the Countess. Final scene: "Don't be scared!" She wakes up and silently moves her lips in horror. Herman asks, begs her to reveal to him the secret of the three cards. He conjures her. “Old witch! So I’ll make you answer!” - he exclaims and takes out a pistol. The Countess nods her head, raises her hands to shield herself from the shot and falls dead. Herman approaches the corpse and takes his hand. Only now does he realize what happened - the Countess is dead, but he did not find out the secret. She's dead! It came true!

Lisa enters. She sees Herman here, in the Countess's room. Herman points to the Countess's corpse and exclaims in despair, that I didn’t find out the secret. Lisa rushes to the corpse, sobs - she is killed by what happened and the main thing is that Herman did not need her, but the secret of the cards. The pace quickens. "Monster! Murderer! Monster,” she exclaims (earlier Herman called her: “Beauty! Goddess! Angel!”). Herman runs away. Lisa, sobbing, falls on the corpse. This is a turning point in the development of action and images. The pinnacle of symphonic development.

Act III. Barracks. Herman's room. Late evening, scene: “I don’t believe it.” He reads Lisa’s letter: she sees that he did not want the Countess to die, 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 a chair in deep thought. He dreams that he hears a choir of singers singing the funeral service for the Countess. Against the background of funeral singing and howling storms, Herman’s excited monologue appears, “All the same thoughts, still the same terrible dream.” He is overcome with horror. He sees footsteps. He runs to the door, but is stopped there by the ghost of the Countess. The music accompanying the appearance of the Countess's ghost is mesmerizing with its deathly stillness; the theme of the ghost arises from the theme of 3 cards. He turns to Herman with the words that he came against his will. I'm scared! Scary! I came to you. He orders Herman to save Lisa, marry her and reveals the secret of three cards: three, seven, ace. Having said this, the ghost immediately disappears. A distraught Herman repeats these cards.

The orchestral introduction to the 6th scene is painted in gloomy tones of doom. Night Winter Canal, Lisa is standing. She waits for Herman and sings her aria. The wide, freely flowing melody of Lisa’s arioso “Oh, I’m tired, I’m tired” is close to Russian drawn-out songs; the second part, “So it’s true, with a villain,” is full of despair and anger. The clock strikes midnight. Lisa desperately calls for German - he is still not there. Now she is sure that he is a killer. Lisa wants to run, but Herman enters. The lyrical duet of Herman and Lisa “Oh yes, the suffering is over” is the only bright moment. It gives way to an episode of Herman’s delirium about gold, remarkable in its psychological depth. “There are piles of gold lying there for me too, it belongs to me alone!” - he assures Lisa. Now Lisa finally understands that Herman is insane. Herman admits that he raised the gun on the “old sorceress.” Now for Lisa he is a killer. Herman repeats three cards in ecstasy, laughs and pushes Lisa away. She, unable to bear it, runs to the embankment and throws herself into the river.

The 7th picture begins with everyday scenes: a gambling house, guests sing: “We will drink and have fun.” Prince Yeletsky is here for the first time. He is no longer a groom, and hopes that he will be lucky in cards, since he was unlucky in love. Tomsky is asked to sing something. He sings a rather ambiguous song “If only dear girls” (its words belong to G.R. Derzhavin). Everyone picks up her last words. In the midst of (So on stormy days) games and fun, Herman enters. With the appearance of Herman, the music becomes nervously excited. Yeletsky asks Tomsky to be his second, if necessary. Everyone is struck by the strangeness of Herman’s appearance. He asks permission to take part in the game. Herman bets on three and wins. Now - seven. And again a win. Herman laughs hysterically. With a glass in his hand, he sings his famous aria. The rapture of victory and cruel joy can be heard in his “What is our life? Game!". Prince Yeletsky comes into play. This round really looks 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's terrified. He curses the old woman. In a fit of madness, he stabs himself to death. The ghost disappears. Herman is still alive. Having come to his senses and seeing the prince, he tries to get up. He asks the prince for forgiveness. At the 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.” The opera ends with a quiet prayer and a tender and tender theme of love in the orchestra.

Conclusion

Opera is the composer’s favorite genre; he loved it more than symphonies, more romances and sonatas, he loved it for its democracy, for the freedom in expressing feelings that he could afford in it. For his works in this genre, he most often chose free, simple plots, without detective elements, without mass choral scenes, without a huge number of characters, which, for example, Wagner or Verdi loved so much. No, he valued something else - the opportunity to reveal a person’s soul, to look into his inner world. Already in “Eugene Onegin” the most successful place is Tatiana’s letter, where nothing happens on stage, but in the music the whole rainbow of experiences and feelings that a young girl experiences when she writes the first love confession in her life is revealed so clearly that it holds attention viewer is better than the gigantic folk scenes of other composers.

The Queen of Spades is, undoubtedly, the best achievement of Pyotr Ilyich in the genre of psychological drama; perhaps this was helped by the talented plot - Pushkin's story of the same name. It should be noted that Tchaikovsky completely rethinks the concept, even changes the characteristics of the characters (Lisa became from an ordinary hanger-on in the countess’s house to her rich heiress, Herman is greatly ennobled) and the duration of the action by several decades.

This musical tragedy amazes with the psychological truthfulness of the reproduction of the thoughts and feelings of the characters, their hopes and sufferings, the brightness of the pictures of the era, and the intensity of the musical and dramatic development. The characteristic features of Tchaikovsky's style receive their most complete and perfect expression here. The orchestral introduction is based on three contrasting images: a narrative one, associated with Tomsky’s ballad; ominous, depicting the image of the old Countess; passionately lyrical, characterizing Herman’s love for Lisa.

The opera has mystical moments, they also give it a unique atmosphere. The mystery of the three cards keeps you in suspense until the very end, the tragedy and death of Lisa resonates deep in the soul, and when the ghost of the Countess appears, goosebumps begin to run down your spine. And it doesn’t matter that you’re just in the auditorium and there are hundreds of people around: you feel uneasy. Tchaikovsky uses various musical techniques for mystification: a whole-tone scale that reflects evil, dry low sounds that generate fear.

The idea of ​​the opera is the collision of light and darkness, love and death, as well as the presence of some kind of nipheral evil, an evil fate against which you are powerless.

Characters:

HISTORY OF CREATION

The plot of Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” did not immediately interest me. However, over time, this novel increasingly captured his imagination. I was especially moved by the scene of Herman’s fatal meeting with the Countess. Its deep drama captured the composer, causing a burning desire to write an opera. The work was begun in Florence on February 19, 1890. The opera was created, according to the composer, “with selflessness 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.

Soon after the publication of his short story (1833), Pushkin wrote in his diary: “My “Queen of Spades” is in great fashion. Players punt on three, seven, ace.” The popularity of the story was explained not only by the entertaining plot, but also by the realistic reproduction of the types and morals of St. Petersburg society at the beginning of the 19th century. In the opera's libretto, written by the composer's brother M. I. Tchaikovsky (1850-1916), the content of Pushkin's story is largely rethought. Lisa turned from a poor pupil into the rich granddaughter of a countess. Pushkin's Herman, a cold, calculating egoist, seized only by the thirst for enrichment, appears in 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 subordinated to the merciless power of money. Herman is a victim of this society; the desire for wealth imperceptibly becomes an obsession with him, overshadowing his love for Lisa and leading him to death.

PLOT

Petersburg. There are many people walking along the sun-drenched alleys of the Summer Garden, children playing under the supervision of nannies and governesses. Surin and Chekalinsky talk about their friend German: he spends all night long, gloomy and silent, in a gambling house, but does not touch the cards. Count Tomsky is also surprised by Herman’s strange behavior. Herman reveals a secret to him: he is passionately in love with a beautiful stranger, but she is rich, noble and cannot belong to him. Prince Yeletsky joins his friends. He announces his upcoming marriage. Accompanied by the old Countess, Lisa approaches, in whom Herman recognizes his chosen one; in despair, he becomes convinced that Liza is Yeletsky’s fiancée. At the sight of the gloomy figure of Herman, his gaze blazing with passion, ominous forebodings overwhelm the Countess and Lisa. Tomsky dispels the painful numbness. He tells a secular joke about the Countess. In her youth, she once lost her entire fortune in Paris. At the cost of a love date, the young beauty learned the secret of the three cards and, betting on them, returned her loss. Surin and Chekalinsky decide to play a joke on German - they invite him to learn the secret of the three cards from the old woman. But Herman’s thoughts are absorbed in Lisa. A thunderstorm begins. In a violent outburst of passion, Herman vows to achieve Lisa’s love or die. Lisa's room. It's getting dark. The girls entertain their saddened friend with a Russian dance. Left alone, Lisa tells the night that she loves Herman. Suddenly Herman appears on the balcony. He passionately confesses his love to Lisa. A knock on the door interrupts the date. The old Countess enters. Herman, hiding behind the curtain, remembers the secret of the three cards. After the Countess leaves, the thirst for life and love awakens in him with renewed vigor. Lisa is overwhelmed by the response.

A masquerade ball in the house of a rich metropolitan dignitary. Prince Yeletsky, alarmed by the bride’s coldness, assures her of his love and devotion. Herman is among the guests. The disguised Chekalinsky and Surin continue to make fun of their friend; their mysterious whispering about magic cards has a depressing effect on his frustrated imagination. The performance begins - the pastoral “The Sincerity of the Shepherdess”. At the end of the performance, Herman runs into the old Countess; again the thought of the wealth that three cards promise takes possession of Herman. Having received the keys to the secret door from Lisa, he decides to find out the secret from the old woman.

Night. The Countess's empty bedroom. Herman enters; he peers with excitement at the portrait of the Countess in her youth, but, hearing approaching steps, hides. The Countess returns, accompanied by her hangers-on. Dissatisfied with the ball, she indulges in memories of the past and falls asleep. Suddenly Herman appears in front of her. He begs to reveal the secret of the three cards. But the old Countess is silent. Enraged Herman threatens with a pistol; the frightened old woman falls dead. Herman is in despair. Close to madness, he does not hear the reproaches of Lisa, who came running in response to the noise. Only one thought dominates him: the Countess is dead, and he has not learned the secret.

Herman's room in the barracks. Late evening. Herman thoughtfully rereads Lisa’s letter: she asks him to come at midnight for a date. Herman again relives what happened, and pictures of the death and funeral of the old woman arise in his imagination. In the howling of the wind he hears funeral singing. Herman is terrified. He wants to run, but he sees the ghost of the Countess. She names the treasured cards: “Three, seven, ace.” Herman repeats them as if in delirium.

Winter groove. Here Lisa must meet with Herman. She wants to believe that her beloved is not guilty of the death of the Countess. The tower clock strikes midnight. Lisa is losing her last hope. Finally Herman appears. Seized by a manic idea of ​​winning, he mechanically repeats Lisa’s words of love. From his incoherent story, Lisa becomes horrified that he is the old woman’s killer. In a fit of madness, Herman pushes Lisa away and shouts: “To the gambling house!” - runs away. In desperation, Lisa throws herself into the water.

Gambling house. The game is on. Herman puts two cards, called Countess, one after another, and wins. Everyone is stunned. Intoxicated with victory, Herman puts all the winnings on the line. Prince Yeletsky accepts Herman's challenge. Herman announces an ace, but instead of an ace, he has the queen of spades in his hands. In a frenzy, he looks at the map, in it he imagines the devilish grin of the old Countess. In a fit of madness, he commits suicide. At the last minute, a bright image of Lisa appears in Herman’s mind. With her name on his lips he dies.

MUSIC

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

The orchestral introduction is based on three contrasting musical images: a narrative one, associated with Tomsky’s ballad, an ominous one, depicting the image of the old Countess, and a passionate lyrical one, characterizing Herman’s love for Lisa.

The first act opens with a bright everyday scene. Choirs of nannies, governesses, and the perky march of boys clearly highlight the drama of subsequent events. Herman’s arioso “I don’t know her name,” sometimes elegiacally tender, sometimes impetuously excited, captures the purity and strength of his feelings. The duet of Herman and Yeletsky confronts the sharply contrasting states of the heroes: Herman’s passionate complaints “Unfortunate day, I curse you” are intertwined with the calm, measured speech of the prince “Happy day, I bless you.” The central episode of the film is the quintet “I’m Scared!” - conveys the gloomy forebodings of the participants. In Tomsky's ballad, the chorus about three mysterious cards sounds ominously. The first picture ends with a stormy thunderstorm scene, against which Herman’s oath sounds.

The second picture falls into two halves - everyday and love-lyrical. The idyllic duet of Polina and Lisa “It’s Evening” is shrouded in light sadness. Polina’s romance “Dear Friends” sounds gloomy and doomed. It is contrasted by the lively dance song “Come on, Little Svetik Mashenka.” The second half of the film opens with Lisa’s arioso “Where do these tears come from” - a heartfelt monologue full of deep feeling. Lisa’s melancholy gives way to 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; sharp, nervous rhythms and ominous orchestral colors emerge. The second picture ends with the affirmation of the bright theme of love. In the third scene (second act), scenes of metropolitan life become the backdrop of the developing drama. The opening chorus in the spirit of welcoming cantatas of Catherine's era is a kind of screensaver of the picture. Prince Yeletsky’s aria “I love you” depicts his nobility and restraint. Pastoral “The Sincerity of the Shepherdess” is a stylization of 18th century music; elegant, graceful songs and dances frame the idyllic love duet of Prilepa and Milovzor. In the finale, at the moment of the meeting of Lisa and Herman, a distorted melody of love sounds in the orchestra: a turning point has occurred in Herman’s consciousness, from now on he is guided not by love, but by the persistent thought of three cards. The fourth scene, central to 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 chorus of hangers-on (“Our Benefactor”) and the Countess’s song (a melody from Grétry’s opera “Richard the Lionheart”) are replaced by music of an ominously hidden nature. It contrasts with Herman’s arioso, “If you ever knew the feeling of love,” imbued with a passionate feeling.

At the beginning of the fifth scene (third act), against the background of funeral singing and the howling of a storm, Herman’s excited monologue appears, “All the same thoughts, still the same terrible dream.” The music that accompanies the appearance of the Countess's ghost fascinates with its deathly stillness.

The orchestral introduction of the sixth scene 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 drawn-out songs; the second part of the aria “So it’s true, with a villain” is full of despair and anger. The lyrical duet of Herman and Lisa “Oh yes, the suffering is over” is the only bright episode of the film. It gives way to a scene of Herman’s delirium about gold, remarkable in its psychological depth. The return of the intro music, sounding menacing and inexorable, speaks of the collapse of hopes.

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

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Queen of Spades
PLOT
BORROWED FROM THE STORY
A. S. PUSHKINA
Libretto
M. TCHAIKOVSKY

CHARACTERS:
Hermann
Count Tomsky (Zlatogor)
Prince Yeletsky
Chekalinsky
Surin
Chaplitsky
Narumov
Manager
Countess
Lisa
Polina (Milovzor)
Governess
Masha
Boy Commander

Characters in the sideshow

Tenor
baritone
baritone
tenor
bass
tenor
bass
tenor
mezzo-soprano
soprano
contralto
mezzo-soprano
soprano
non-singing

Prilepa
soprano
Milovzor (Polina)
contralto
Zlatogor (city of Tomsk)
baritone
Nannies, governesses, nurses, walking guests, children, players, etc.
The action takes place in St. Petersburg at the end of the 18th century.

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INTRODUCTION.
ACT ONE
PICTURE ONE
Spring. Summer garden. Venue. Nannies sit on benches and walk around the garden,
governesses and nurses. Children play with burners, others jump over ropes,
throwing balls.
GIRLS
Burn, burn clearly
So that it doesn't go out,
One, two, three!
(Laughter, exclamations, running around.)
NANIES
Have fun, dear children!
Rarely is the sunshine for you, my dears,
Amuses me with joy!
If, dear ones, you are free
You start games and pranks,
That's a little bit for your nannies
Then you bring peace.

And have fun in the sun!
GOVERNESS
Thank God, at least you can rest a little,
Breathe the spring air, see something!
Don't shout, spend time without making comments.
Forget about suggestions, punishments, the lesson.
NANIES
Warm up, run, dear children,
And have fun in the sun.
NURSES
Bye, bye bye!
Sleep, darling, rest!
Don't open your eyes!
(Drumming and children's trumpets are heard.)

Here are our soldiers coming - little soldiers.
How slim! Step aside! Places! One, two, one two...
(Boys wearing toy weapons enter; a boy commander is in front.)
BOYS
(marching)
One, two, one, two,
Left, right, left right!
Together, brothers!
Don't get lost!
BOY COMMANDER
Right shoulder forward! One, two, stop!
(The boys stop)
Listen!
Musket in front of you! Take it by the gun! Musket to the leg!
(The boys follow the command.)

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BOYS
We're all gathered here
For fear of Russian enemies.
Evil enemy, beware!
And run away with villainous thoughts, or submit!
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
Save the Fatherland
It was our fate.
We will fight
And enemies in captivity
Pick up without invoice!
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
Long live the wife,
Wise Queen,
She is the mother of us all,
Empress of these countries
And pride and beauty!
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
BOY COMMANDER
Well done, guys!
BOYS
We are glad to try, your honor!
BOY COMMANDER
Listen!
Musket in front of you! Right! On guard! March!
(The boys leave drumming and trumpeting.)
NANIES, NURSES, GOVERNESSS
Well, well done, our soldiers!
And they will indeed bring fear to the enemy.
(Other children follow the boys. The nannies and governesses disperse,
giving way to other walkers. Enter Chekalinsky and Surin.)
CHEKALINSKY
How did the game end yesterday?
SURIN
Of course, I blew it terribly!
I'm unlucky...
CHEKALINSKY
Did you play again until the morning?
SURIN
Yes!
I'm terribly tired
Damn it, I wish I could win at least once!
CHEKALINSKY
Was Herman there?
SURIN
Was. And, as always,
From eight to eight in the morning
Chained to the gambling table
sat,
And silently blew wine,
CHEKALINSKY
And that's all?
SURIN
Yes, I watched others play.

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CHEKALINSKY
What a strange man he is!
SURIN
It's like it's in his heart
There are at least three villains.
CHEKALINSKY
I heard that he is very poor...
SURIN
Yes, not rich. Here it is, look:
Like a demon of hell, gloomy... pale...
(Herman enters, thoughtful and gloomy; Count Tomsky is with him.)
TOMSKY
Tell me, Herman, what's wrong with you?
HERMANN
With me? Nothing...
TOMSKY
Are you sick?
HERMANN
No, I'm healthy!
TOMSKY
You have become something different...
Dissatisfied with something...
Happened: reserved, thrifty,
At least you were cheerful;
Now you are gloomy, silent
And, - I don’t believe my ears:
You, burning with a new passion,
As they say, until the morning
Do you spend your nights gaming?
HERMANN
Yes! Steady foot towards the goal
I cannot walk as before.
I myself don’t know what’s wrong with me.
I'm lost, I'm indignant at weakness,
But I can't control myself anymore...
I love! I love!
TOMSKY
How! Are you in love? To whom?
HERMANN
I don't know her name
And I can't find out
Without wanting an earthly name,
Call her...
Going through all the comparisons,
I don't know who to compare with...
My love, the bliss of paradise,
I would like to keep it forever!
But the thought is jealous that someone else should have it
When I don’t dare kiss her footprint,
Torments me; and earthly passion
In vain I want to calm down,
And then I want to hug everyone,
And I still want to hug my saint...
I don't know her name
And I don't want to find out...

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TOMSKY
And if so, get to work quickly!
Let's find out who she is, and then -
And make an offer boldly,
And - it's a deal!
HERMANN
Oh no! Alas, she is noble
And it cannot belong to me!
This is what bothers and gnaws at me!
TOMSKY
Let's find another... Not the only one in the world...
HERMANN
You don't know me!
No, I can’t stop loving her!
Oh, Tomsky, you don’t understand!
I could only live in peace
While passions were dormant within me...
Then I could control myself.
Now that the soul is in the grip of one dream,
Goodbye peace! Poisoned, as if intoxicated,
I'm sick, sick... I'm in love.
TOMSKY
Is it you, Herman?
I admit, I wouldn't trust anyone
That you are capable of loving so much!
(Herman and Tomsky pass. People walking fill the stage.)
CHORUS OF WALKERS
Finally, God sent a sunny day!


We won't be able to wait long for a day like this again.
OLD WOMEN
We lived better before
And such days happened every year, in early spring,
And now they are rare. Sunshine in the morning
It got worse. Really, it's time to die.
Before, it was really better, it was more fun to live.
The sun in the sky was no surprise to us.
Before, really, it was better and life was more fun.
OLD PEOPLE
We haven't seen days like this for many years,
And it happened that we often saw them.
In the days of Elizabeth - a wonderful time -
Summer, autumn and spring were better.
Oh, many years have passed since there were such days,
And it used to be that we saw them often before.
The days of Elizabeth, what a wonderful time!
Oh, in the old days life was better, more fun,
Such spring, clear days have not happened for a long time!
YOUNG LADIES
What a joy! What happiness!
How joyful, how joyful it is to live!
How nice it is to go to the Summer Garden!
Lovely, how nice it is to walk into the Summer Garden!
Look, look how many young people

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There are a lot of both military and civilians wandering along the alleys
Look, look how many people are wandering around here:
Both military and civilian, how graceful, how beautiful.
How beautiful, look, look!
Finally, God sent us a sunny day!
What kind of air! What a sky! It's definitely May here!
Oh, how lovely! Really, I wish I could walk all day!
Can't wait for a day like this
Can't wait for a day like this
Long time for us again.
Can't wait for a day like this
Long time for us, long time for us again!
YOUNG PEOPLE
Sun, sky, air, nightingale song
And a bright blush on the girls’ cheeks.
Then spring gives, and with it love
Sweetly excites young blood!
Sky, sun, clean air,
sweet nightingale song,
Joy of life and scarlet blush on
cheeks of the devs
Now the gifts of beautiful spring, then
gifts of spring!
Happy day, beautiful
what a good day!
Oh joy! We have spring love and
brings happiness!
Finally God sent us
sunny day!
What kind of air! What a sky! Exactly
May is here!
Oh, how lovely!
Really, I wish I could walk all day!
Can't wait for a day like this
Can't wait for a day like this
Long time for us again.
(German and Tomsky enter.)
TOMSKY
Are you sure she doesn't notice you?
I bet she's in love and misses you...
HERMANN
If only I were deprived of gratifying doubt,
Would my soul have endured the torment?
You see: I live, I suffer, but in a terrible moment,
When I find out that I am not destined to possess her,
Then there will be only one thing left...
TOMSKY
What?
HERMANN
Die!
(Prince Yeletsky enters. Chekalinsky and Surin go to him.)
CHEKALINSKY
(to the prince)
We can congratulate you.

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SURIN
They say you are a groom?
PRINCE
Yes, gentlemen, I am getting married; the bright angel gave consent
Combine your destiny with mine forever!..
CHEKALINSKY
Well, good morning!
SURIN
I'm glad with all my heart. Be happy, prince!
TOMSKY
Yeletsky, congratulations!
PRINCE
Thank you, friends!
PRINCE
(with feeling)
Happy day
I bless you!
How everything came together
To rejoice with me,
It was reflected everywhere
The bliss of unearthly life...
Everything smiles, everything shines,
Just like in my heart,
Everything is trembling cheerfully,
To the bliss of heaven beckoning!
HERMANN
Unlucky day
I curse you!
It's like everything came together
To join the fight with me.
Joy was reflected everywhere,
But not in my sick soul...
Everything smiles, everything shines,
When on my heart
The annoyance of hell trembles,
It promises only torment...
TOMSKY
(to the prince)
Tell me, who will you marry?
HERMANN
Prince, who is your bride?
(The Countess enters with Lisa.)
PRINCE
(pointing to Lisa)
Here she is!
HERMANN
She? She is his bride! Oh God!...
LISA AND THE COUNTESS
He's here again!
TOMSKY
So who is your nameless beauty?
LISA
I'm scared!
He's in front of me again
Mysterious and dark stranger!

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In his eyes there is a silent reproach
Replaced by the fire of crazy, burning passion...
Who is he? Why is he following me?

His eyes of ominous fire!
I'm scared!
COUNTESS
I'm scared!
He's in front of me again
Mysterious and scary stranger!
He is the ghost of the fatal
Full of some kind of wild passion,
What does he want by pursuing me?
Why is he in front of me again?
I'm scared, like I'm in power
His eyes of ominous fire!
I'm scared...
HERMANN
I'm scared!
Here again in front of me, like
ghost of the fatal
A gloomy old woman appeared...
Terrible in her eyes
I read my sentence silently!
What does she need, what does she want from me?
It's like I'm in control
Her eyes of ominous fire!
Who, who is she?
I'm scared!
PRINCE
I'm scared!
My God, how embarrassed she is!
Where does this strange excitement come from?
There is languor in her soul,
There is some kind of silent fear in her eyes!
It’s a clear day in them for some reason
The bad weather has come to change.
What's wrong with her? Doesn't look at me!
Oh, I'm scared, like I'm close
Something unexpected is threatening
misfortune.
I'm scared!
TOMSKY
So who was he talking about?
How embarrassed he is by the unexpected news!
I see fear in his eyes...
Silent fear replaced fire
crazy passion!
What about her, what about her? How pale!
Oh, I'm scared for her!
I'm scared.
(Count Tomsky approaches the Countess. The Prince approaches Lisa. The Countess looks intently at
Herman)

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TOMSKY
Countess,
Let me congratulate you...
COUNTESS
Tell me who is this officer?
TOMSKY
Which? This? Herman, my friend.
COUNTESS
Where did he come from? How scary he is!
(Tomsky accompanies her to the back of the stage.)
PRINCE
(giving hand to Lisa)
Heaven's enchanting beauty,
Spring, zephyrs light rustle,
The joy of the crowd, hello friends, -
They promise many years in the future
We are happy!
HERMANN
Rejoice, buddy!
Have you forgotten that behind a quiet day
There is a thunderstorm. What is the creator
Gave happiness tears, a bucket - thunder!
(Distant thunder. Herman sits down on the bench in gloomy thoughtfulness.)
SURIN
What a witch this Countess is!
CHEKALINSKY
Scarecrow!
TOMSKY
No wonder she was nicknamed “The Queen of Spades.”
I can’t understand why she doesn’t show off?
SURIN
How? An old woman?
CHEKALINSKY
An eighty-year-old hag!
TOMSKY
So you don't know anything about her?
SURIN
No, really, nothing.
CHEKALINSKY
Nothing.
TOMSKY
Oh, listen!
Many years ago the Countess was known in Paris as a beauty.
All the youth were crazy about her,
Calling it “Venus of Moscow”.
Count Saint-Germain - among others then still handsome,
I was captivated by her. But to no avail he sighed for the countess:
The beauty played all night long and, alas,
Pharaoh preferred love.
Once upon a time at Versailles “au jeu de la Reine” Venus moscovite
lost to the ground.
Among the guests was the Count of Saint-Germain;
While watching the game, he heard her
She whispered in the midst of excitement: “Oh, God! Oh my!
Oh God, I could play it all back

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When would it be enough to put it again

The graph, having chosen the right moment when
Stealthily leaving the full hall of guests,
The beauty sat silently alone,
In love, whispered words sweeter than sounds in her ear
Mozart:
"Countess, Countess, Countess, at the price of one, "rendezvous"
want
Perhaps I'll tell you three cards, three cards, three cards?
The Countess flared up: “How dare you!”
But the count was not a coward... And when a day later
The beauty appeared again, alas,
Penniless "au jeu de la Reine"
She already knew three cards.
Boldly placing them one after another,
She got hers back... but at what cost!
Oh cards, oh cards, oh cards!
Since she told her husband those cards,
Another time, the handsome young man recognized them.
But that same night, only one remained,
The ghost appeared to her and said menacingly:



Three cards, three cards, three cards!”
CHEKALINSKY
Se nonè vero, è ben trovato.
(Thunder is heard, a thunderstorm is coming.)
SURIN
Funny! But the Countess can sleep peacefully:
It is difficult for her to find an ardent lover.
CHEKALINSKY
Listen, Herman, here's a great opportunity for you,
To play without money. Think about it!
(Everyone laughs.)
CHEKALINSKY, SURIN
“From the third, who ardently, passionately loving,
He will come to find out from you by force
Three cards, three cards, three cards!”
(They leave. There is a strong clap of thunder. The thunderstorm is breaking out. The walkers hurry into equal
sides. Exclamations, shouts.)
CHORUS OF WALKERS
How quickly the storm came... Who would have expected?..
What passions... Blow after blow, louder, more terrible!
Run quickly! Hurry up to the gate!
(Everyone runs away. The thunderstorm intensifies.)
(From a distance.)
Oh, hurry home!
Run here quickly!
(Strong clap of thunder.)
HERMANN
(thoughtfully)
"You will receive a fatal blow
From the third, who ardently, passionately loving,

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He will come to find out from you by force
Three cards, three cards, three cards!”
Oh, what do I care about them, even if I possessed them!
Everything is lost now... I am the only one left. I don't care about the storm
scary!
In myself all the passions awoke with such murderous
by force,
That thunder is nothing in comparison! 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!
Thunder, lightning, wind, in your presence I solemnly grant
I take an oath: she will be mine, or I will die!
(Runs away.)

PICTURE TWO

Lisa's room. Door to balcony overlooking the garden. Lisa at the harpsichord. Around her
Pauline. Girlfriends.
LISA AND POLINA
It’s already evening... the edges of the clouds have darkened,
The last ray of dawn on the towers dies;
The last shining stream in the river
With the extinct sky it fades away.
Everything is quiet: the groves are sleeping; there is peace all around;
Prostrate on the grass under a bent willow,
I listen to how it murmurs, merging with the river,
A stream overshadowed by bushes.
How the aroma is fused with the coolness of the plants!
How sweet is the splashing of the jets in the silence by the shore!
How softly the zephyr blows across the waters,
And the fluttering of the flexible willow!
CHORUS OF FRIENDS
Charming! Charming!
Wonderful! Lovely! Oh, wonderful, good!
More, mesdames, more, more.
LISA
Sing, Polya, for us alone.
PAULINE
One?
But what to sing?
CHORUS OF FRIENDS
Please, what do you know?
Ma chère, little dove, sing us something.
PAULINE
I'll sing my favorite romance...
(Sits down at the harpsichord, plays and sings with deep
feeling.)
Wait... How is this? Yes I remembered!
Dear friends, in playful carelessness,
You frolic in the meadows to the tune of a dance tune!
And I, like you, lived happy in Arcadia,
And I, in the morning of days, in these groves and fields

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Tasted moments of joy:
Love promised me happiness in golden dreams,
But what did I get in these joyful places?
Grave!
(Everyone is touched and excited.)
So I decided to sing a tearful song like this?
Well, why? You’re already sad enough, Lisa,
On such and such a day! Think about it, you're engaged, ah, ah, ah!
(To girlfriends.)
Well, why are you all hanging your noses? Let's have fun,
Yes, Russian in honor of the bride and groom!
Well, I'll start, and you sing along with me!
CHORUS OF FRIENDS
Indeed, let's have a fun, Russian one!
(The friends clap their hands. Lisa, not taking part in the fun, stands thoughtfully by
balcony.)
PAULINE
(friends sing along with her)
Come on, little Mashenka,
You sweat, dance,
Ay, lyuli, lyuli,
You sweat, dance.
Your white hands
Pick it up at the sides.
Ay

Based on 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)
THE GOVERNESS (mezzo-soprano)
MASHA (soprano)
BOY COMMANDER (without singing)

characters in the interlude:
PRILEPA (soprano)
MILOVZOR (POLINA) (contralto)
ZLATOGOR (COUNT OF TOMSKY) (baritone)
NANIES, GOVERNESSS, NURSES, WALKERS, GUESTS, CHILDREN, PLAYERS, AND OTHER.

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

Amazingly, before P.I. Tchaikovsky created his tragic operatic masterpiece, Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” inspired Franz Suppe to write... an operetta (1864); and even earlier - in 1850 - the French composer Jacques Francois Fromental Halévy wrote an opera of the same name (however, little remains of Pushkin here: the libretto was written by Scribe, using the translation of “The Queen of Spades” into French made in 1843 by Prosper Merimee; in this opera the hero's name is changed, the old countess is turned into a young Polish princess, and so on). These are, of course, curious circumstances, which can only be learned from musical encyclopedias - these works have no artistic value.

The plot of “The Queen of Spades,” proposed to the composer by his brother, Modest Ilyich, did not immediately interest Tchaikovsky (as the plot of “Eugene Onegin” had done in his time), but when it finally captured his imagination, Tchaikovsky began working on the opera “with selflessness and pleasure" (as with "Eugene Onegin"), and the opera (in clavier) was written in an amazingly short time - in 44 days. In a letter to N.F. von Meck P.I. Tchaikovsky talks about how he came up with the idea of ​​writing an opera on this plot: “It happened this way: my brother Modest three years ago began composing a libretto for the plot of “The Queen of Spades” at the request of a certain Klenovsky, but this latter finally gave up composing music, for some reason he was 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 certainly for the next season. He expressed this desire to me, and since it coincided with my decision to flee Russia in January and start 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 by May I will present it to the directorate of the keyboard, and in the summer I will be instrumentalizing it.”

Tchaikovsky went to Florence and began working on The Queen of Spades on January 19, 1890. The surviving sketches give an idea of ​​how and in what sequence the work proceeded: this time the composer wrote almost “in a row” (unlike “Eugene Onegin,” the composition of which began with the scene of Tatiana’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 differs to a very large extent from the original. Pushkin's work is prosaic, the libretto is poetic, with poems 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, an unclear question arises about her parents - who, where they are, what happened to them. Pushkin’s Hermann (sic!) is from the Germans, which is why this is the spelling of his last name; in Tchaikovsky, nothing is known about his German origin, and in the opera “Herman” (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 any way in the opera, and where he was introduced by an outsider (just an acquaintance of Herman, like other players), is her grandson in Pushkin; 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 - to the era of Catherine. The endings of the drama in Pushkin and Tchaikovsky are also different: in Pushkin, Hermann, although he goes crazy (“He is sitting in the Obukhov hospital in room 17”), still does not die, and Liza, 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 built 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. Venue. Nannies, governesses and nurses sit on benches and walk around the garden. Children play burners, others jump over ropes and 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 cheerful march of boys: a boy commander walks ahead, he gives commands (“Musket ahead of you! Take the muzzle! Musket to your foot!”), the rest carry out his commands, then, drumming and blowing a trumpet 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. It’s bad, he, Surin, lost. The conversation turns to Herman, who also comes, but does not play, but only watches. And in general, his behavior is quite strange, “as if he has at least three atrocities 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 a beautiful stranger. He talks about this in the arioso “I don’t know her name.” Tomsky is surprised by Herman’s passion (“Is it you, Herman? I confess, I wouldn’t believe anyone that you are capable of loving like that!”). They pass, and the stage is again filled with people walking. Their chorus 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 unnecessary, 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, old men, young ladies, and young people are talking about the weather, all of them singing at the same time.

Herman and Tomsky reappear. They continue the conversation that was interrupted for the viewer by their previous departure (“Are you sure that she doesn’t notice you?” Tomsky asks Germana). Prince Yeletsky enters. Chekalinsky and Surin go to him. They congratulate the prince on the fact that he is now the groom. Herman asks who the bride is. At this moment the Countess and Lisa enter. The prince points to Lisa - this is his bride. Herman is in despair. The Countess and Lisa notice Herman, and both of them are overcome by an ominous feeling. “I’m scared,” they sing together. The same phrase - a wonderful dramatic find of the composer - begins the poems of Herman, Tomsky and Yeletsky, which they sing simultaneously with the Countess and Lisa, each further expressing 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 remains aside, 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; he radiates joy and delight. Herman sees this with undisguised jealousy and sings, as if reasoning to himself: “Rejoice, friend! Have you forgotten that after a quiet day there can be a thunderstorm!” With these words of his, a distant rumble of thunder can actually be heard.

The men (here German, Tomsky, Surin and Chekalinsky; Prince Yeletsky left earlier with Lisa) start talking about the countess. Everyone agrees that she is a “witch,” a “bogeyman,” and an “octogenarian hag.” Tomsky (according to Pushkin, her grandson), however, knows something about her that no one knows. “The Countess, many years ago in Paris, was known as a beauty,” - this is how he begins his ballad and talks about how the Countess once lost all her fortune. Then the Count of Saint-Germain offered her - at the cost of only a "rendez-vous" - to show her three cards, which, if she bet on them, would return her fortune to her. The Countess got her revenge... but what a price! Twice she revealed the secret of these cards: first time to her husband, second time to a handsome young man. But a ghost who appeared to her that same night warned her that she would receive a fatal blow from a third person who, ardently in love, would come to forcefully learn the three cards. Everyone perceives this story as a funny story and even, laughing, advise Herman to take advantage of the opportunity. A strong clap of thunder is heard. A thunderstorm is brewing. People walking are hurrying in different directions. Herman, before he himself escapes from the thunderstorm, swears that Lisa will be his or he will die. So, in the first picture, Herman’s dominant feeling remains love for Lisa. Something will happen next...

Picture 2. Lisa's room. Door to balcony overlooking the garden. Lisa at the harpsichord. Polina is near her; friends are here. Lisa and Polina sing an idyllic duet to the words of Zhukovsky (“It’s already evening... the edges of the clouds have darkened”). Friends express delight. Lisa asks Polina to sing alone. Polina sings. Her romance “Dear Friends” sounds gloomy and doomed. It seems to resurrect the good old days - it’s 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 the Latin phrase that then became popular: “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 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 happy in Arcadia.” This Latin phrase could often be found on tombstones (N. Poussin depicted such a scene twice); Polina, like Lisa, accompanying herself on the harpsichord, completes her romance with the words: “But what did I get in these joyful places? Grave!”) Everyone is touched and excited. But now Polina herself wants to add 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. Lisa, not taking part in the fun, stands at the balcony. Polina and her friends start singing, then start dancing. The governess enters and puts an end to the girls' fun, reporting that the countess, having heard the noise, became angry. The young ladies disperse. Lisa sees Polina off. The maid (Masha) enters; she puts out the candles, leaving only one, and wants to close the balcony, but Lisa stops her.

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

Herman appears at the door of the balcony. Lisa retreats in horror. They look at each other silently. 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 - “alone or in front of others.” The big duet of Lisa and Herman is full of passionate impulse. Herman exclaims: “Beauty! Goddess! Angel!" He kneels in front of Lisa. His arioso “Forgive me, heavenly creature, that I disturbed your peace” sounds tender and sad - one of Tchaikovsky’s best tenor arias.

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

Herman recalls the fateful words: “Who, passionately loving, will come to probably learn from you three cards, three cards, three cards!” Lisa closes the door behind the Countess, approaches the balcony, opens it and motions for Herman to leave. Herman begs her not to drive him away. To leave means to die for him. "No! Live!” exclaims Lisa. Herman impulsively hugs her; she rests her head on his shoulder. "Gorgeous! Goddess! Angel! I love you! - Herman sings ecstatically.

ACT II

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

Picture 3. A masquerade ball in the house of a rich metropolitan (naturally, St. Petersburg) nobleman. Large hall. On the sides, between the columns, there are boxes. Guests dance contradance. The singers sing in the choirs. Their singing reproduces the style of greeting cants of Catherine's 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 - “At one time 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 emptying. Servants enter to prepare the center of the stage for the performance of the sideshow, a traditional entertainment at balls. Prince Yeletsky and Lisa pass 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 don’t 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 have to see you...” Chekalinsky and Surin reappear, with several more people with them; they tease Herman.

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

An excited 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 clarify the time of action of the opera: “no later than 1796,” since Catherine II died that year. In general, Tchaikovsky had difficulties with introducing the empress in the opera - the same ones that N.A. Rimsky had previously encountered -Korsakov during the production of “The Woman of Pskov.” The fact is that even in the 40s, Nicholas I, by his highest command, forbade the appearance of the reigning persons of the Romanov house on the opera stage (and this was allowed in dramas and tragedies because it was not allowed); It will be good if the Tsar or Tsarina suddenly sings a song. There is a well-known letter from P.I. Tchaikovsky to the director of the imperial theaters I.A. Vsevolozhsky, in which he, in particular, writes: “I flatter myself with the hope that Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich will settle the issue of the appearance of Catherine by the end of the 3rd picture.") Strictly speaking, this picture ends only with preparations for the meeting of the Empress: “The men take a position of a low court bow. Ladies squat deeply. Pages appear” - this is the author’s last remark in this picture. The choir praises Catherine and exclaims: “Vivat! Vivat!

Picture 4. The countess's bedroom, illuminated by lamps. Herman enters through the secret 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 Lisa's door, but his attention is attracted by the portrait of the Countess; he stops to examine it. Midnight strikes. “Ah, here it 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 a rose in her powdered hair”). The sound of footsteps frightens Herman; he hides behind the curtain of the boudoir. The maid runs in and hurriedly 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”).

Lisa and Masha enter. Lisa lets Masha go, and she realizes that Lisa is waiting for Herman to come to her. Now Masha knows everything: “I chose him as my husband,” Lisa reveals to her. They are leaving.

The hangers-on and maids bring in the Countess. She is wearing a dressing gown and a nightcap. She is put to bed. But she, expressing herself rather strangely (“I’m tired... There’s no urine... I don’t want to sleep in bed”), sits down in a chair; it is covered with pillows. Cursing modern manners, she reminisces about her French life, while she sings (in French) an aria from Grétry's opera Richard the Lionheart. (A funny anachronism, which Tchaikovsky could not have known about - he simply did not attach importance to historical authenticity in this case; although, as regards Russian life, 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” dates back to the end of the 18th century and the countess is now an eighty-year-old old woman, then in the year “Richard” was created she was at least seventy” and the French king (“The king heard me,” the countess recalled) would hardly have listened to her sing like that; Thus, if the countess once sang for the king, it was much earlier, long before the creation of “Richard.”)

While performing her aria, the Countess gradually falls asleep. Herman appears from behind cover and confronts the Countess. She wakes up and silently moves her lips 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 conjures her. “Old witch! So I’ll make you answer!” - he exclaims and takes out a pistol. The Countess nods her head, raises her hands to shield herself from the shot, and falls dead. Herman approaches the corpse and takes his hand. Only now does he realize what happened - the countess is dead, but he did not find out the secret.

Lisa enters. She sees Herman here, in the countess's room. She is surprised: what is he doing here? Herman points to the countess’s corpse and exclaims in despair that he did not know the secret. Lisa rushes to the corpse, sobs - she is killed by what happened and, most importantly, that Herman did not need her, but the secret of the cards. "Monster! Murderer! Monster!" - she exclaims (compare with him, German: “Beauty! Goddess! Angel!”). Herman runs away. Lisa, sobbing, falls on the countess's lifeless body.

ACT III

Picture 5. Barracks. Herman's room. Late evening. The moonlight alternately illuminates the room through the window and then disappears. Howl of the wind. Herman is sitting at the table near a candle. He reads Lisa's letter: she sees that he did not want the countess to die, 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 a chair in deep thought. He dreams that he hears a choir of singers singing the funeral service for the Countess. He is overcome with horror. He sees footsteps. He runs to the door, but is stopped there by the ghost of the Countess. Herman retreats. The ghost is approaching. The ghost turns to Herman with the words that he came against his will. He orders Herman to save Lisa, marry her and reveals the secret of three cards: three, seven, ace. Having said this, the ghost immediately disappears. A distraught Herman repeats these cards.

Picture 6. Night. Winter Canal. In the background of the scene are the embankment and the Peter and Paul Church, illuminated by the moon. Under the arch, all in black, stands Lisa. She is waiting for Herman and sings her aria, one of the most famous in opera - “Ah, I’m tired, I’m tired!” The clock strikes midnight. Lisa desperately calls for German - he is still not there. 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 we mustn't hesitate. The clock is running. And Herman calls on Lisa to run away with him. But where? Of course, to the gambling house - “There are piles of gold there for me too, they belong to me alone!” - he assures Lisa. Now Lisa finally understands that Herman is insane. Herman admits that he raised the gun on the “old sorceress.” Now for Lisa he is a killer. Herman repeats three cards in ecstasy, laughs and pushes Lisa 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 have fun.” Surin, Chaplitsky, Chekalinsky, Arumov, Tomsky, Yeletsky exchange remarks regarding the game. Prince Yeletsky is here for the first time. He is no longer a groom and hopes that he will be lucky in cards, since he was unlucky in love. Tomsky is asked to sing something. He sings a rather ambiguous song “If only there were dear girls” (its words belong to G.R. Derzhavin). Everyone picks up her last words. In the midst of the game and fun, Herman enters. 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 begins. Herman bets on three and wins. He continues the game. Now - seven. And again a win. Herman laughs hysterically. Requires wine. With a glass in his hand, he sings his famous aria “What is our life? - Game! Prince Yeletsky comes into play. This round really looks 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's terrified. He curses the old woman. In a fit of madness, he stabs himself to death. The ghost disappears. Several people rush to the fallen Herman. He's still alive. Having come to his senses and seeing the prince, he tries to get up. He asks the prince for forgiveness. At the 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

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

Thus, he put a lot of effort into creating an authentic atmosphere of that time. In Florence, where sketches for the opera were written and part of the orchestration was done, Tchaikovsky did not part with the music of the 18th century from the era of the “Queen of Spades” (Grétry, Monsigny, Piccinni, Salieri) and wrote in his diary: “At times it seemed that I was living in the 18th century.” century and that there was nothing further than Mozart.” Of course, Mozart is no longer so young in his music. But besides imitation - with an inevitable share of dryness - of Rococo patterns and the resurrection of expensive gallant-neoclassical forms, the composer relied primarily on his heightened sensibility. His feverish state during the creation of the opera went beyond normal tension. Perhaps in the possessed Hermann, who demands the countess name three cards and thereby dooms himself to death, he saw himself, and in the countess his patron, Baroness von Meck. Their strange, one-of-a-kind relationship, maintained only in letters, a relationship like two disembodied shadows, ended in a break just in 1890.

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

The score differs in a number of features. The coloring of the first act is close to “Carmen” (especially the boys’ march), but Herman’s sincere arioso remembering Lisa stands out here. Then the action suddenly shifts to a drawing room of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, in which a pathetic duet is heard, oscillating between major and minor, with the obligatory accompaniment of flutes. In Herman’s appearance in front of Lisa, the power of fate is felt (and his melody is somewhat reminiscent of Verdi’s “Force of Destiny”); the countess brings in a grave cold, and the ominous thought of three cards poisons the young man’s consciousness. In the scene of his meeting with the old woman, Herman's stormy, desperate recitative and aria, accompanied by angry, repetitive wooden sounds, mark the collapse of the unfortunate man, who loses his mind in the next scene with the ghost, truly expressionist, with echoes of "Boris Godunov" (but with a richer orchestra) . Then follows the death of Lisa: a very gentle, 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 decadent romanticism of the composer, which made so many hearts tremble and still constitutes the most popular aspect of his music. However, behind this passionate and tragic picture lies a formal structure inherited from neoclassicism. Tchaikovsky wrote about this well in 1890: “Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann composed their immortal creations exactly as a shoemaker sews boots.” Thus, the skill of the artisan comes first and only then inspiration. As for “The Queen of Spades,” it was immediately accepted by the public as a great success for the composer.

G. Marchesi (translated by E. Greceanii)

History of creation

The plot of Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” did not immediately interest Tchaikovsky. However, over time, this novel increasingly captured his imagination. Tchaikovsky was especially moved by the scene of Herman’s fatal meeting with the Countess. Its deep drama captured the composer, causing a burning desire to write an opera. The work was begun in Florence on February 19, 1890. The opera was created, according to the composer, “with selflessness 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.

Soon after the publication of his short story (1833), Pushkin wrote in his diary: “My “Queen of Spades” is in great fashion. Players punt on three, seven, ace.” The popularity of the story was explained not only by the entertaining plot, but also by the realistic reproduction of the types and morals of St. Petersburg society at the beginning of the 19th century. In the opera's libretto, written by the composer's brother M. I. Tchaikovsky (1850-1916), the content of Pushkin's story is largely rethought. Lisa turned from a poor pupil into the rich granddaughter of a countess. Pushkin's Herman, a cold, calculating egoist, seized only by the 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 subordinated to the merciless power of money. Herman is a victim of this society; the desire for wealth imperceptibly becomes an obsession with him, overshadowing his love for Lisa and leading him to death.

Music

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

The orchestral introduction is based on three contrasting musical images: a narrative one, associated with Tomsky’s ballad, an ominous one, depicting the image of the old Countess, and a passionate lyrical one, characterizing Herman’s love for Lisa.

The first act opens with a bright everyday scene. Choirs of nannies, governesses, and the perky march of boys clearly highlight the drama of subsequent events. Herman’s arioso “I don’t know her name,” sometimes elegiacally tender, sometimes impetuously excited, captures the purity and strength of his feelings. The duet of Herman and Yeletsky confronts the sharply contrasting states of the heroes: Herman’s passionate complaints “Unfortunate day, I curse you” are intertwined with the calm, measured speech of the prince “Happy day, I bless you.” The central episode of the film is the quintet “I’m Scared!” - conveys the gloomy forebodings of the participants. In Tomsky's ballad, the chorus about three mysterious cards sounds ominously. The first picture ends with a stormy thunderstorm scene, against which Herman’s oath sounds.

The second picture falls into two halves - everyday and love-lyrical. The idyllic duet of Polina and Lisa “It’s Evening” is shrouded in light sadness. Polina’s romance “Dear Friends” sounds gloomy and doomed. It is contrasted by the lively dance song “Come on, Little Svetik Mashenka.” The second half of the film opens with Lisa’s arioso “Where do these tears come from” - a heartfelt monologue full of deep feeling. Lisa’s melancholy gives way to 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; sharp, nervous rhythms and ominous orchestral colors emerge. The second picture ends with the affirmation of the bright theme of love. In the third scene (second act), scenes of metropolitan life become the backdrop of the developing drama. The opening chorus in the spirit of welcoming cantatas of Catherine's era is a kind of screensaver of the picture. Prince Yeletsky’s aria “I love you” depicts his nobility and restraint. Pastoral “The Sincerity of the Shepherdess” is a stylization of 18th century music; elegant, graceful songs and dances frame the idyllic love duet of Prilepa and Milovzor. In the finale, at the moment of the meeting of Lisa and Herman, a distorted melody of love sounds in the orchestra: a turning point has occurred in Herman’s consciousness, from now on he is guided not by love, but by the persistent thought of three cards. The fourth scene, central to 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 chorus of hangers-on (“Our Benefactor”) and the Countess’s song (a melody from Grétry’s opera “Richard the Lionheart”) are replaced by music of an ominously hidden nature. It contrasts with Herman’s arioso, “If you ever knew the feeling of love,” imbued with a passionate feeling.

At the beginning of the fifth scene (third act), against the background of funeral singing and the howling of a storm, Herman’s excited monologue appears, “All the same thoughts, still the same terrible dream.” The music that accompanies the appearance of the Countess's ghost fascinates with its deathly stillness.

The orchestral introduction of the sixth scene 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 drawn-out songs; the second part of the aria “So it’s true, with a villain” is full of despair and anger. The lyrical duet of Herman and Lisa “Oh yes, the suffering is over” is the only bright episode of the film. It gives way to a scene of Herman’s delirium about gold, remarkable in its psychological depth. The return of the intro music, sounding menacing and inexorable, speaks of the collapse of hopes.

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

M. Druskin

After more than a ten-year period of complex, often contradictory quests, along the way of which there were both bright and interesting discoveries and annoying miscalculations, Tchaikovsky comes to his greatest achievements in operatic creativity, creating “The Queen of Spades,” which is not inferior in strength and depth of expression to his symphonic works. masterpieces like Manfred, the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. He did not work on any of his operas, with the exception of Eugene Onegin, with such ardent enthusiasm, which, by the composer’s own admission, reached “self-forgetfulness.” Tchaikovsky was so deeply captured by the entire atmosphere of the action and the images of the characters in “The Queen of Spades” that he perceived them as real living people. Having completed the draft recording of the opera with feverish speed (The entire work was completed in 44 days - from January 19 to March 3, 1890. The orchestration was completed in June of the same year.), he wrote to his brother Modest Ilyich, the author of the libretto: “... when I got to the death of Herman and the final chorus, I felt so sorry for Herman that I suddenly began to cry a lot<...>It turns out that Herman was not just an excuse for me to write this or that music, but all the time a living person...” In another letter to the same addressee, Tchaikovsky admits: “I experience in other places, for example, in the fourth scene, which I arranged today, such fear, horror and shock that it is impossible for the listener not to experience at least part of it.”

Written based on Pushkin’s story of the same name, Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades” largely deviates from the literary source: some plot moves have been changed, and the characters and actions of the characters have received different coverage. In Pushkin, German is a man of one passion, straightforward, calculating and tough, ready to put his own and other people’s lives on the line to achieve his goal. In Tchaikovsky, he is internally broken, in the grip of contradictory feelings and drives, the tragic irreconcilability of which leads him to inevitable death. The image of Lisa was subjected to a radical rethinking: Pushkin’s ordinary, colorless Lizaveta Ivanovna became a strong and passionate person, selflessly devoted to her feelings, continuing the gallery of pure, poetically sublime female images in Tchaikovsky’s operas from “The 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 century” , but had no impact on the overall flavor of the action and the characters of its main participants. In terms of the richness and complexity of their spiritual world, the severity and intensity of their experiences, these are the composer’s contemporaries, in many ways akin to the heroes of the psychological novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.

A compositional, dramatic and intonation analysis of “The Queen of Spades” is given in a number of works devoted to Tchaikovsky’s work as a whole or to its individual types. Therefore, we will dwell only on some of the most important, most characteristic features. “The Queen of Spades” is the most symphonic of Tchaikovsky’s operas: the basis of its dramatic composition is the consistent end-to-end development and interweaving of three constant themes, which are the carriers of the main driving forces of the 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 harsh theme of the Countess, which is based on a short motive of three sounds, easily amenable to various changes, can be compared in meaning with the themes of rock in the composer’s symphonic works. In the course of development, this motif undergoes rhythmic compression and expansion, its intervallic composition and modal coloring changes, but with all these transformations, the formidable “knocking” rhythm, which constitutes its main characteristic, is preserved.

Using the words of Tchaikovsky, spoken in another connection, we can say that this is the “grain”, “certainly the main idea” of the entire work. This theme serves not so much as an individual characteristic of the image, but as the embodiment of a mysterious, inexorably fatal principle that weighs on the fate of the central characters of the opera - Herman and Lisa. It is omnipresent, intertwined both in the orchestral fabric and in 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 persistent thought about three cards lodged in Herman’s sick brain: at the moment when the ghost of the dead Countess appears to him and names them, all that remains of the theme are three slowly descending sounds in whole tones. 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. This theme is given a special flavor by its characteristic timbre coloring: as a rule, it sounds in the dull low register of a clarinet, bass clarinet or bassoon, and only in the final scene, before Herman’s fatal loss, is it darkly and menacingly intoned by brass and string basses as an inevitable sentence of fate.

Closely related to the theme of the Countess is another important theme - three cards. The similarity is manifested both in the motivic structure, consisting of three units 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 three cards, in a slightly modified form, sounds in the mouth of Herman (the “output” arioso “I don’t know her name”), emphasizing his doom from the very beginning.

In the process of further development, the theme takes on different forms and sounds sometimes tragic, sometimes mournfully lyrically, and some of its turns are heard even in recitative remarks.

The third, widely chanted lyrical theme of love with an excited sequential rise to the melodic peak and a smooth, undulating descending second half contrasts with both previous ones. It receives especially wide development in the scene of Herman and Lisa that concludes the second picture, reaching an enthusiastic, rapturously passionate sound. Subsequently, 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 clearly and unclouded. There comes a moment of catharsis, purification - the terrible delusional visions dissipate, and the bright feeling of love triumphs over all the horrors and nightmares.

A high degree of symphonic generality is combined in “The Queen of Spades” with bright and colorful stage action, replete with sharp contrasts, changes of light and shadow. Acute conflict situations alternate with distracting background episodes of an everyday nature, and development proceeds 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 a scene of festivities in the Summer Garden, children's games and careless chatter of nannies, nurses and governesses, against the background of which the gloomy figure of Herman stands out, completely absorbed in thoughts about his hopeless love. The idyllic scene of the entertainment of society young ladies at the beginning of the second picture helps to highlight the sad thoughtfulness and hidden spiritual anxiety of Lisa, who is haunted by the thought of a mysterious stranger, and Polina’s romance, with its gloomy coloring contrasting with the pastoral duet of two friends, is perceived as a direct premonition of the tragic end awaiting the heroine (As is known, according to the original plan, this romance was to be sung by Liza herself, and the composer then transferred it to Polina for purely practical theatrical reasons, in order to provide the performer of this part with an independent solo number.).

The third painting of the ball is distinguished by its special decorative splendor, a number of episodes of which are deliberately stylized by the composer in the spirit of 18th-century music. 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 Lisa, where fragments of the themes of three cards and love sound anxiously and confusedly. Moving the action forward, they directly prepare the central scene in its dramatic significance in the Countess's bedroom.

In this scene, remarkable in terms of dramatic integrity and steadily increasing power of emotional tension, all lines of action are tied into one tight knot and the main character comes face to face with his fate, personified in the image of the old Countess. Sensitively responding to the slightest shifts in everything that happens on stage, the music develops at the same time as a single continuous flow in the close interaction of vocal and orchestral-symphonic elements. Except for the song from Grétry’s opera “Richard the Lionheart”, put by the composer into the mouth of the falling asleep Countess (Many times attention was drawn to the anachronism committed by Tchaikovsky in this case: the opera “Richard the Lionheart” was written in 1784, that is, approximately at the same time as the action of “The Queen of Spades” and therefore could not be associated with memories of the Countess’s youth. But against the general background of the music of the opera, it is perceived as something distant, forgotten, and in this sense it corresponds to the artistic task set; as for historical authenticity, it apparently did not concern the composer very much.), then in this picture there are no completed solo vocal episodes. By flexibly using various types of musical recitation from monotonous recitation on one sound or short excited cries to more melodious constructions approaching ariatic singing, the composer very subtly and expressively conveys the spiritual movements of the characters.

The dramatic climax of the fourth scene is the tragically ending “duel” between Herman and the Countess (In this scene, the original Pushkin text was preserved by the librettist almost without changes, 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 “Tchaikovsky translated into the language of music not only the 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 - to all Herman’s pleas and threats, the Countess remains silent, 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 (which are then joined by the flute) convey with almost naturalistic imagery the dying shudders of a lifeless body.

The feverish excitement of the emotional atmosphere is combined in this picture with 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. The expanded precursor is a large fifty-bar structure at the beginning of the picture with restlessly soaring and then mournfully sinking phrases of muted violins against the backdrop of a dully vibrating dominant organ point in the violas. The long-accumulated harmonic instability conveys Herman’s feelings of anxiety and involuntary fear of what awaits him. The dominant harmony does not receive resolution within this section, being replaced by a number of modulating moves (B minor, A minor, C sharp minor). Only in the stormy, rapid Vivace that concludes the fourth picture does a steadily sounding tonic triad of its main key of F-sharp minor appear and the same alarming melodic phrase is again heard in conjunction with the theme of the three cards, expressing Herman’s despair and Lisa’s horror at 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 intensity of development: night, barracks, Herman alone on duty. The leading role belongs to the orchestra, Herman's part is limited to individual cues of a recitative nature. The funeral singing of a church choir coming from afar, the sounds of a signal military fanfare, “whistling” passages of high wooden and strings, conveying the howling of the wind outside the window - all this merges into one ominous picture, evoking alarming forebodings. The horror engulfing Herman reaches its climax with the appearance of the ghost of the dead Countess, accompanied by her leitmotif, at first dull, hidden, and then sounding with increasing force in conjunction with the theme of the three cards. In the final section of this picture, an explosion of panic horror gives way to a sudden numbness, and the distraught Herman automatically, as if hypnotized, repeats in one sound the words of the Countess “Three, seven, ace!”, while in the orchestra the transformed theme of three sounds just as smoothly and dispassionately cards with elements of an enlarged 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 (It has been noted, not without reason, by various authors that Lisa’s aria in this film does not quite correspond stylistically to the general melodic-intonation structure of her part.). But the composer needed it “so that the viewer would know what happened to Lisa,” whose fate would have remained unclear without this. That is why he so stubbornly defended this picture despite the objections of Modest Ilyich and Laroche.

After three “night” paintings, gloomy in color, the last, seventh takes place in bright light, the source of which is, however, not the daytime sun, but the restless flickering of candles in a gambling house. The chorus of players “Let’s sing and have fun,” interrupted by short, abrupt remarks from the participants in the game, then the reckless “Greek” song “This is how they gathered on rainy days” creates an atmosphere of frenzied excitement in which Herman’s last desperate game takes place, ending in loss and suicide. The Countess's theme, emerging in the orchestra, achieves a powerful, menacing sound here: only with the death of Herman does the terrible obsession disappear and the opera ends with the theme of love quietly and tenderly sounding in the orchestra.

Tchaikovsky's great creation 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 of the human soul, to reveal the complex world of the subconscious, unconsciously driving our actions and deeds. It is no coincidence that this opera aroused such keen interest among a number of representatives of new young artistic movements emerging at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Twenty-year-old Alexander Benois, after the premiere of “The Queen of Spades,” was overcome, as he later recalled, by “a kind of frenzy of delight.” “There is no doubt,” he wrote, “that the author himself knew that he had managed to create something beautiful and unique, something in which his whole soul, his whole worldview was expressed.”<...>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 precisely this feeling thanks. Through these sounds, a lot of the mysterious things that I saw around me were really revealed to 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 profound; a number of literary and pictorial (to a lesser extent musical) works directly reflected the impressions of acquaintance with it. And to this day “The Queen of Spades” remains one of the unsurpassed pinnacles of the classical operatic heritage.

Yu. Keldysh

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