[Met Performance] CID:209290
The Queen of Spades {21} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/30/1967.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
January 30, 1967
In English
THE QUEEN OF SPADES {21}
P. I. Tchaikovsky-M. Tchaikovsky
Lisa....................Teresa Stratas
Gherman.................Jon Vickers
Countess................Jean Madeira
Prince Yeletsky.........William Walker
Count Tomsky............Morley Meredith
Chekalinsky.............Paul Franke
Surin...................Lorenzo Alvary
Paulina.................Joann Grillo
Masha...................Carlotta Ordassy
Master of Ceremonies....Gene Boucher
Chloé...................Loretta Di Franco
Chaplitsky..............Gabor Carelli
Narumov.................Louis Sgarro
Dance...................Naomi Marritt
Dance...................Ivan Allen
Conductor...............Thomas Schippers
Director................Henry Butler
Designer................Robert O'Hearn
Choreographer...........Alicia Markova
Translation by Goldovsky
The Queen of Spades received six performances this season.
[The opera was listed in company programs as Queen of Spades.]
Review of Irving Kolodin in the February18, 1967 issue of the Saturday Review
Vickers in "Spades"
At the parent house, uptown, another kind of musical problem presented itself with the return of Tchaikovsky's "Pique Dame." Contrary to most recent experiences with new productions, this venture of the second season was, on the whole, better than any of the first season. Epoch-making as this may appear, it was not, really; for the quality at the outset was not very high.
It did, however, represent a creative combination of performers from last season's first cast and others who were added later on, both much more familiar with their roles than before. Of overriding importance in the first category was Thomas Schippers, whose conducting has much more that is idiomatic and purposeful than it did at the outset of this venture. It also took in Teresa Stratas, who has much more identity with the blood and bone of Lisa than she did previously, and Jon Vickers, whose vocal effort as Gherman was much more flexible and expressive than before. Adding to them Joann Grillo as Pauline and Morley Meredith as Tomsky made a composite of virtues that were rarely assembled in last season's sequence. Jean Madeira's Countess has also ripened to a fullness of physical decline that approached, in its different way, the classic characterization of Regina Resnik. Conversely, the artful vignettes of Lorenzo Alvary as Surin, Paul Franke as Chekalinsky, and Gabor Carelli as Chaplinsky roused some passing wonder why William Walker, with all his vocal endowment, couldn't make something more aristocratic of his Prince Yeletsky.
The effort to people Robert O'Hearn's spacious settings with a cast worthy of them (and the score) showed a managerial persistence that was sustained by a more settled dramatic plan than Henry Butler had achieved originally. The more Tchaikovsky sounds like Tchaikovsky the more likely it is that Metropolitan audiences will be content to absent themselves a while from the felicities of Wagner and Verdi, Puccini and Strauss.