Product Overview
TCHAIKOVSKY: LA Dame de Pique (SPADES QUEEN) / Libretto: Roland PETIT / Corps de Ballet and Orchestra of BOLSHOI THEATER / Musical direction/Conductor: Vladimir ANDROPOV / DVD
Format: NTSC
Run time: 133 Minutes
UPC: 3760115300125
- Aspect Ratio : 1.78:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : Yes
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 0.01 Ounces
- Director : Denis Caozzi
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC, Widescreen, Classical
- Run time : 2 hours and 13 minutes
- Release date : February 6, 2009
- Actors : Ilze Liepa, Svetlana Lunkina, Nikolay Tsiskaridze, Georgiy Geraskin, Yan Godovsky
- Dubbed: : None
- Subtitles: : French, English, Russian
- Studio : Bel Air Classiques
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
The Queen of Spades or Pique Dame, Op. 68 (Russian: Пиковая дама, Pikovaya dama French: La Dame de Pique) is an opera in three acts (seven scenes) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on the 1834 novella of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, but with a dramatically altered plot. The premiere took place in 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The Imperial Theatre offered Tchaikovsky a commission to write an opera based on the plot sketch by Ivan Vsevolozhsky in 1887/88. After first turning it down, Tchaikovsky accepted it in 1889. Toward the end of that year, he met with the theatre's managers to discuss the material and sketch out some of the scenes.
He completed the full score in Florence in only 44 days. Later, working with the tenor who was to perform the lead character, he created two versions of Herman's aria in the seventh scene, using different keys. The changes can be found in the proof sheets and inserts for the first and second editions of the printed version of the score. While composing the music, Tchaikovsky edited the libretto significantly, changing some of the text and adding his own lyrics to two arias.
