What guided the staging work of Olivier Py on this Queen of Spades ? The program of room does not say anything, one is reduced to suppositions. One thing is clear, however: would anyone, who had never seen the work represented, have sought to find out about it beforehand in order to receive it in the best conditions, have recognized it in this version? For the music, no doubt, but in the theatrical adaptation? Probably not.
Now this imposes itself from the outset by phagocytizing the opening. When the orchestra exposes for the listener the beginnings of the troubles to come, the decor monopolizes the attention, by fixing the framework of the adventures. Pierre-André Weitz can’t stand it, yet this building in ruins which has visibly been bombed cruelly resonates with those brought to our television screens by the news and this creates unease. Obviously we won’t see anything of the public garden where the crowd is snorting in the spring sun and where the authors have planned to bring the protagonists together. In this sinister decor, where a platform connecting two bodies of buildings divides the space in two and constitutes a second stage above the plateau, one can see, in the garden, a bed. And as the music continues to set the mood for the scenes to come, a pantomime unfolds there. Of the two men lying down, one seems very eager for contact, but the other pushes him away, the first insists, same game, and it lasts. One of the men is Hermann; inevitably one wonders about his sexuality. Is it a theme of The queen of spades? No. But it is a theme that interests Olivier Py.
Later he will extend it to the countess, this decrepit octogenarian who is said to have slept in the past to obtain the secret of winning cards, and will show her as an erotomaniac old woman who caresses a young prostitute before going to bed. When Hermann wakes her up to get the secret of the three cards from her, she offers herself to him, attempting to undress him. His refusals will remain ambiguous and when he leaves her, his pants badly buttoned up, the suspenders dragging behind him, the trousers cancel out the tragedy of the situation. This bias of irony, if it agrees with that of Pushkin, is completely absent from the opera.
The public gathers to attend the pastoral © frederic stephan
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Let’s move on to mimed copulations, doggy style and other sodomy, whose protagonists are the dancers, the one who most often dresses up as a ballerina – the black swan? – being the man lying next to Hermann. We won’t dispute the coherence, the skill of the production, or the talent of the dancers, but we see there only an annexation of the work to the obsessions of Olivier Py. Whether Hermann is homosexual, bisexual, or whatever, is irrelevant. And whatever bridge one can throw between the composer and the character, Tchaikovsky is not Hermann. This commoner frequents, through his position as an engineer officer, young people from privileged social strata who squander fortunes. The boldness of his comrades’ games fascinates him, but he has never given in to the temptation to risk what is necessary to gain what is superfluous. Except that when this reasonable young man falls in love he loses his mind because he wants to get a lot of money very quickly. Playing might be the way. But he wants to play for sure. And for that he is ready for anything.
Tomski, who is interested in Hermann, has noticed the change in his behavior, and when Hermann confides in him his passion and his despair he encourages him to pull himself together by virtue of the “one lost, etc…”. Does this solicitude seem suspicious to Olivier Py? It makes Tomski appear as a malevolent, borderline evil witness, without anyone understanding why. But this option pales in comparison to the appearance of Empress Catherine II as a twisted madwoman sodomized by monkeys. It is true that a banner bringing together 1812 – Napoleon and the retreat from Russia – 1942 (the beginning of the collapse of Hitler’s armies) and videos of Stalinist buildings exalted the greatness of Russia and overwhelmed the dishonoring tsarist past. But does the meaning of the pastoral survive this exhibition? As for the image of a militarized society where everyone or almost everyone wears the uniform, which the costumes give, it is perhaps valid for the transposition but this impoverishes the broader picture of fin-de-siècle society, that the cliché of drinking vodka all the time does not fall under. And it takes, in an unpredictable actuality when this production was prepared, something horribly sinister.
One more word on the distribution of space; the platform already mentioned is a multipurpose space, which becomes, according to the paintings, a public or private space, outside or inside the residence of the countess or the barracks where Hermann lives. In the courtyard, a staircase connects it to the plateau and allows to come and go in both directions, while the bare entrails of the building constitute a maze under the platform where characters can circulate. From Hermann’s bedroom we go to Lisa’s by moving the bed which ends up in the courtyard, that of the Countess taking its place on the platform when the time comes. This organization makes it possible for characters to appear simultaneously on different planes that the libretto does not bring together and these coincidences contribute to creating an appreciable climate of strangeness. But will neophytes find their way there? Shouldn’t productions be designed for them, to win the loyalty of a new audience?
Fortunately, voice distribution is less problematic. If the Lisa of Karine Babajanyan does not seduce immediately, because of tense high notes, it goes the distance, and both its duet with Pauline and its final scene are beautiful moments, supported by a notable scenic vigilance. To Paulina, Flower Barron, it is enough on the other hand to open the mouth to seize the listener by the depth of its timbre, the flexibility of the voice, and its musicality does the rest. She is as sighing and mischievous a suitor as one could desire in the pastoral. Anne Calloni asserts a fruity and well-projected voice in the double role of Macha and especially Prilepa (the shepherdess Chloé). Announced suffering Nona Javakhidze has enough control over his voice that he doesn’t seem to have it, and his governess has all the compunction required. As for the countess, this role so often entrusted to glories in their twilight years, she is incarnated with relish by a Marie-Ange Todorovitch at its zenith, in a full voice that knows how to lighten up to adorn Grétry’s melancholy romance with all the desired delicacies.
Like Lisa, Hermann is a bit perplexing. Admittedly the character is in a phase of exaltation and his phrasing suffers from it, with outbursts and outfits that express these exacerbated feelings. But it gives, at least at first, the impression of overdoing it, of going overboard, with results that are not very pleasant to hear. Aaron Cawley will nevertheless manage over the course of the performance to find the right balance between expressiveness and vocal quality with a great success in the third act. Serban Vasile portrays a prince Eletski of just elegance in a romance full of fervor. In the troubled role of Tomsky, Alik Abdukayumov gradually becomes disturbing, conforming, one supposes, to the directives of the staging. His voice is full, homogeneous, and he crowns his song with a long held treble. What to provoke the replica ofArtavad Sargsyan, to whom his role offers no air but who seizes the opportunity offered by an exclamation to show that his voice is just as long and as brilliant. He formed with the bass of Nika Guliashvili an effective duo of pranksters pushing-for-crime in a stage game that is for once clear and respectful of the situation. Also impeccable Christophe Poncet de Solages, alternately master of ceremonies and Tchaplitski and Guy BonfiglioNarumov.
The performance is beautiful on the side of the choirs, those of Avignon having come to reinforce the house choirs, their musicality is never faulted. Success also for the Children’s Masters of the Toulon Opera and the TPM Conservatory, in a scenic context that did not make the reference to Carmen. From the direction of Jurjen Hempel we will retain probity, the obvious concern to make the work sing and not to penalize the singers by controlling the sound outpourings as much as possible. This may have diminished the strength of the lyricism, as well as the distribution of certain desks in side boxes due to the crampedness of the pit. If the brass were brilliant we would have liked more vibrant strings in the third act. But the design of the show hardly helped, by offering a vision of the work out of step with the exaltation of feelings. At the greetings, after the conductor has collected and shared with the orchestra the warm tribute of the public, on the evening of the premiere a performer goes backstage to seek out the director. But the steps of Marie-Ange Todorovitch then of Nona Javakhidze remained in vain. No one came to greet. Why ? Mystery. We will not deny the strength of Olivier Py’s proposal. But the prism to which he subjects the work unnecessarily distorts its spirit.
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