PIQUE DAME

Discover the secret, crack the code, get the key: What drives us to submit to the unknown, to forget what we originally felt and who we are? With The Queen of Spades, Alexander Pushkin presented a Russian variant of the Gothic novel in 1834. In it, his protagonist Hermann stares unblinkingly at the window, behind which Liza sits. While he tries to elicit the secret of the three cards from the Countess, whose ward Liza is, Liza mistakes his obsession for love. Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky stages the couple’s downfall all the more drastically in his opera, when, as the plot begins he has the possibility of a joyful life appear and allows the two to take the self-chosen path of estrangement and self-destruction into madness and death. As in a film noir, in the staging by Benedict Andrews it draws the characters into their own abysses. 

The young Uzbek conductor Aziz Shokhakimov can be enjoyed at the Bayerische Staatsoper for the first time as he conducts The Queen of Spades in the 2023/2024 season. Director Benedict Andrews already staged Così fan tutte at the Bayerische Staatsoper in the 2022/2023 season. Recently he has been focussing more on his film projects: Seberg with Kristen Stewart, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019, and Una with Rooney Mara, which featured at the Telluride Film Festival in 2016. As Resident Director at the Sydney Theatre Company and later at the Schaubühne Berlin, Benedict Andrews has consistently staged new drama and British playwriting. He has presented opera works at houses such as De Nationale Opera, Amsterdam, the English National Opera, London, the Komische Oper Berlin and Oper Frankfurt. He shares a long-standing collaboration with costume designer Victoria Behr, who has been accoladed numerous times in the Theater heute monthly magazine as “costume designer of the year”. He now collaborates for the first time with Rufus Didwiszus, who designed his first stage at the Bayerische Staatsoper in the 2021/2022 season for Der Rosenkavalier, directed by Barrie Kosky.

FIRST ACT

Meeting Lisa has turned the life of officer Hermann (German) upside down. He would like nothing more than to marry her but as a social outsider he is almost sure to have no chance to gain her heart. What is more, she is wealthy, but he is not. His friends Tomski, Tschekalinski and Surin are even more surprised than usual about his behavior: Hermann has been spending a lot of time in the casino lately. As if magically attracted, he circles the gaming tables without placing any bets himself.

Prince Yeletsky introduces Tomski and his friends to his bride. With horror, Hermann realizes that the bride is none other than Lisa, the woman he adores. Tomski tries to comfort him. However, Lisa also seems to have feelings for Hermann. Her grandmother, the Countess, senses disaster when she comes face to face with the mysterious outsider, and Hermann is also overcome by a shiver. Tomski tells the friends how the Countess got her nickname "Queen of Spades": A long time ago, the mysterious Count Saint-Germain told her which three cards meant a sure win. She has already revealed the secret twice but if she tells a third party, as a ghost once prophesied, she will die by the hands of that person. Hermann decides to reveal the secret to the countess, seeing it as the solution to all his problems.

Lisa and her friends meet up late at night. When Polina is asked to sing a song, she conjures up the image of a dead woman. A dance is supposed to liven up the situation. The governess puts an end to the hilarity and sends the young women home. Lisa is left alone. Hermann emerges from the darkness and declares his passionate love for Lisa. Lisa hesitantly confesses that she loves him too. Both are aware of the danger this puts them in, as Lisa is the prince's fiancée.

SECOND ACT

During a masked ball, which the Tsarina honors with her presence, Lisa slips Hermann the key to the Countess's bedroom. From there, a secret door leads to her room, where she wants to meet Hermann. Hermann hides in the Countess's bedroom when she returns from the ball. When she has sent her entourage away and is lost in her memories of times gone by, Hermann emerges from the darkness and demands from her to reveal the secret of the three cards. The Countess refuses to answer and is so much frightened when Hermann threatens her with his gun that she dies. Lisa enters the room. Worse than the countess's death is for Lisa to realize that gambling is clearly more important for Hermann than the love affair with her.

THIRD ACT

Hermann is haunted by delusions. He keeps picturing the Countess's funeral and imagines that the Countess is blinking at him from her coffin. Then suddenly a ghost appears in the form of the dead Countess. She tells him which three cards guarantee him to win the game: Three, Seven, Ace.

Lisa has given Hermann an ultimatum. He is to avow himself to her. When he finally turns up for the all-important encounter, he swears his love to Lisa. Now that he is in possession of the secret of the cards, his main desire is to rush to the casino immediately, thereby revealing how extensively he is addicted to gambling. He also indirectly admits having killed the Countess. Lisa realizes that Hermann is lost and that her fate is irrevocably tied to his.

When he arrives at the casino, Hermann immediately sits down at the gaming table. Twice, he wins large sums. The third time, his opponent is Prince Yeletsky who has since broken up with Lisa. Confident of victory, Hermann turns over his card. However, instead of the ace he faces the Queen of Spades. Once again, Hermann firmly believes to see the Countess in front of him. Thinking to have now gone completely mad, he puts an end to his life. As he dies, Lisa appears to him as an angel of reconciliation.