As a singer, she could very well sing the title role in The Queen of Spades herself, but in recent years she has added the conductor's card to her game. We asked Nathalie Stutzmann during the piano rehearsals for our new production about the incredible richness of Tchaikovsky's score.
Concerts for the greats of the earth and a decades-long career at the upper echelons of the opera world. Are we talking about Anne Sofie von Otter here or the Countess in The Queen of Spades? It seems as if Tchaikovsky had the Swedish grande dame in mind when he composed his opera, and yet she is only now debuting the role – at La Monnaie.
No luck in love without luck in play. This is the idée fixe that Hermann is pursuing in Pikovaya Dama. He overplays his hand and eventually loses both the game and love, but by then we are already three hours into glowingly intense music...
Yours truly, P. Tchaikovsky
Read along in the composer's correspondence and find out how The Queen of Spades came into being, an opera that was actually not intended for him...
The La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra was established 250 years ago. Who better to highlight in celebration of this anniversary than the artists in the orchestra pit? We invited cellist Sébastien Walnier to discuss life as it is in the orchestra, his love for Puccini and why the cello stole his heart.
