My second opera of the day in St. Petersburg was Sergei Prokofiev’s
”The Gambler” (Игрок), which
is based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel with the same name.
The story of the opera is not exactly joyful, so it is a
typical Dostoevsky work. It tells about young Polina, who owes a debt to the
Marquis just like her father, the general. The general expects to tackle the
loan when his old relative dies, but she gambles instead a big part of her fortune
at a casino. The tutor Alexei, who is in love with Polina, also gambles at the
casino and wins a lot of money. He tries to give her enough money to pay the
debt, but she throws the money back at his face. Alexei remains on the stage
and obsesses about his gamble.
The set design of ”The Gambler” (Zinovy Margolin) was very
simple. The same black constructions functioned as the living room, the park
and the casino. The epoch costumes by Tatiana Noginova were also based in a few
main colours. Despite its simplicity, the visual part worked, since the story was
so strong.
The soloists were as a whole of high quality, even though I
liked the most Irina Bogacheva in the role of the old lady. But in this opera
also the strongest role was played by the orchestra. Prokofiev has in “The
Gambler” composed superb music for the orchestra and I often felt that I could
have followed the story only by listening to the orchestra, so expressive the
music was. As an opera fan, I do not say this often, but this time I can say,
that the singing could have been left out. The Mariinsky orchestra with the
conductor Pavel Smelkov did excellent work.
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