THE QUEEN OF SPADES
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Event details
29 May - 4 July 2025
Tchaikovsky’s intensely dramatic opera is a tragedy about the remorseless nature of fate, brought to life with music on a grand scale. This production sees the return of Jack Furness, Tom Piper and Douglas Boyd after their triumphant Rusalka in 2022 which later opened the Edinburgh International Festival. The production revels in the opulence of the St Petersburg we saw at the end of Tom Piper’s 2016 Eugene Onegin as this passionate thriller unfolds.
Hermann is a soldier in St. Petersburg, isolated from his fellow officers by his strange and obsessive behaviour. He is in love with Lisa, who tentatively returns his love but is engaged to another man. Lisa is the ward of an elderly, eccentric Countess, the toast of Paris society in her long-ago youth, rumoured to possess the knowledge of a winning combination of three cards. Having once confided that secret to two men, she was warned by an apparition that she would die at the hands of a third if she ever revealed the secret again. Hermann becomes fixated on the Countess and her three cards. He can think of nothing else and will do whatever is necessary to discover the secret.
Sung in Russian with English supertitles
Please note, reflecting the plot of the opera, there are some scenes of a violent or sexual nature in this production.
29 May - 4 July 2025
29 May - 4 July 2025
Cast & Creative Team
Cast
Herman
Aaron Cawley
Lisa / Chloe
Laura Wilde
The Countess
Diana Montague
Count Tomsky / Plutus
Robert Hayward
Prince Yeletsky
Roderick Williams
Polina / Daphnis
Stephanie Wake-Edwards
Tchekalinsky
Sam Furness
Surin
Simon Shibambu
A Boy Captain
George Hooson
Governess
Hannah Poulsom
Masha
Alexandria Moon
Major-Domo
Will Diggle
Tchaplitsky
James Micklethwaite
Narumov
Thando Zwane
Catherine the Great (silent)
Julia Da Silva Moore
A Boy (silent)
Edward Jones
Creative Team
Conductor
Douglas Boyd
Director
Jack Furness
Designer
Tom Piper
Lighting Designer
Lizzie Powell
Movement Director
Lucy Burge
Garsington Opera Chorus
Garsington Opera Youth Company
Philharmonia Orchestra
Videos
Reviews
★★★★
“Jack Furness’s staging is something of a collector’s item among productions of The Queen of Spades”
Neil Fisher, The Times, 2 June
★★★★
“Musically, Tchaikovsky’s powerful score benefits from the infinitely varied colours drawn from the musicians of the Philharmonia Orchestra by Garsington’s artistic director, conductor Douglas Boyd: in particular, the dynamic range he summons up, from the softest pianissimo to the most overwhelming fortissimo, focuses attention on the extraordinary sound-world emanating from the pit.”
George Hall, The Stage, 30 May
★★★★
“This picturesque but fundamentally grim world is enlivened by the dancers in the ball scenes and above all by Garsington’s lavish 32-strong chorus, breathtakingly vigorous whether they’re playing eager gamblers round the gambling-table or the Countess’s chattering servants”
Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph, 30 May
★★★★
“Tchaikovsky’s brooding, melancholy masterpiece about an obsessive gambler comes chillingly to life”
Richard Fairman, Financial Times, 30 May
★★★★
“Aaron Cawley … has the just right type of voice for the role of Herman – plangent, intense, taut – and the right vocal weight, the voice forwardly placed”
Mark Pullinger, Opera Now, 30 May
★★★★
“This is an overwhelmingly convincing staging of a genuine music drama, and it will surely come to be seen as one of Garsington’s most notable milestones”
Martin Kettle, The Guardian, 30 May
★★★★
“The Queen of Spades contrasted the deceptive splendour of 18th century St Petersburg with the torment of the outsider in the person of Herman, presenting richly imagined scenes within which the characters played out their dreams and nightmares”
Roy Westbrook, Bachtrack, 31 May
“Garsington Opera’s new staging by Jack Furness, conducted by artistic director Douglas Boyd, with the Philharmonia Orchestra in the pit, presents the gambler’s descent into madness in all its many-layered strangeness, and achieves impressive musical standards”
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, 29 June
“Furness is on top form here, delivering multilayered storytelling underpinned by subtle characterisation. He has an eye for spectacle, as well as the tiny details that speaks volumes”
Richard Bratby, The Spectator, 5 June
“This will surely prove to be one of the best things to be seen among the summer opera festivals this season.”
Curtis Rogers, Seen & Heard International, 2 June
