Pushkin vs Tchaikovsky: The Queen of Spades
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| "Your Queen is dead!" "No, your Queen is dead!" |
♠ Comparing the two Queens of Spades ♠
Whenever you go to an opera performance of Eugene Onegin in Russia, there are always those dissatisfied people in the
audience who argue that the characters are all portrayed wrong, how all modern
productions are wrong, and basically how everything is wrong because some
things aren’t “according to Pushkin”. Once I overheard someone commenting on Andriy
Zholdak’s production at the Mikhailovsky Theatre (which is one of my favourite
productions of Onegin!!) how it was “historically incorrect”! What? You mean,
they didn’t have front-loader washing machines and microwaves in the 1820’s?
Are you serious?!
If we were to only value an operatic work (and
its productions) on its likeness to the original text, then Tchaikovsky would
fail instantly, as the very first words we hear in the opera Eugene Onegin (where Tatiana and Olga
are singing a duet together) aren’t even from Onegin![1]
At least the text of the duet was taken from another poem by Pushkin. Wait
‘till we get to the Queen of Spades -
Tchaikovsky not only includes text by poets other than Pushkin from the late
18th and early 19th centuries, he even uses music by other composers!
For the creation of Onegin the opera, Tchaikovsky and librettist Shilovsky took an
entire novel in verse and carefully selected the text to form seven lyric
scenes. The Queen of Spades on the
other hand - originally a short story more or less than an hour’s worth of
reading, was turned into nearly three hours worth of music with several changes
and added elements[2].
So, if you ever go to a performance of the Queen
of Spades, you can either sit there in outrage at how it’s “not according
to Pushkin”, or you can enjoy the genius of Tchaikovsky who spread our
appreciation for Pushkin’s literature by bringing it to life through music and
the stage.
But what were those changes which Tchaikovsky
made? So I compared the two Queens of
Spades - Pushkin’s and Tchaikovsky’s, and as usual wrote a list of all the
differences that I found. And here are some of them:
♠ Herman the German ♠
The first noticeable
difference is the name of the main character. Pushkin calls him Германн (Hermann), a young engineer,
son of a Russianised German. However, in the opera, the second letter ‘n’ is
missing at the end of his name, creating some confusion about whether Герман (Herman) is the character’s
first name or surname.
♠ Other Characters ♠
Pushkin’s Lizaveta Ivanovna is a poor girl who
lives under the care of the Old Countess’ household. She has no girlfriends,
nobody notices her and often cries in her bedroom. Meanwhile, Tchaikovsky
character who is only known to us as Liza,
is the noble granddaughter of the Old Countess.
In the original, the Old Countess whose name is Anna
Fedotovna, is Tomsky’s grandmother. In
the opera it seems that Tomsky is not related to the Countess.
Prince Yeletsky does not exist in Pushkin’s
original. Having him as Liza’s fiancé creates rivalry for Herman with a single 'n' (similarly by the way, there was no ‘Prince Gremin’ in the original Eugene Onegin!). The name Yeletsky however, wasn’t just pulled out
of thin air - in Chapter 2 of Pushkin’s story, Tomsky mentions the name
Yeletskaya, who he saw the night before at some merry event. Yeletskaya is the
granddaughter of the deceased Princess Darya Petrovna whose death the Countess
wasn’t aware of.
According to Tomsky’s
anecdote in the original, the Countess who was young at the time (over half a
century ago) had revealed the three cards to a guy called Chaplitsky who was desperate after losing a game. The latter “died
in misery”, however, in the opera he is alive and well - Chaplitsky is one of
the gamblers and Herman’s companions, and is the first character to make an
entrance in the opera. For this reason, in Tomsky’s Ballade in Act I, the story
goes that the young Countess revealed the secret three cards to ‘a young
handsome man’ instead of Chaplitsky.
♠ Ghosts ♠
The main difference
between the stories of the Countess told by Tomsky is that while Pushkin’s ends
with Chaplitsky winning with the three cards, Tchaikovsky’s version has an
added ghost which appeared before the Countess, warning her that she shall die
if she reveals the three cards to the third person who is passionately in love.
We later find out that the “person in love” is not necessarily in love with the
Countess, and that lover is Herman (unless you argue that he was in love
with the three cards and that they are synonymous with the Countess).
♠ Mozart ♠
If the Old Countess
“strictly followed the 70’s fashion and put in as much time and effort into
dressing up as she did 60 years ago”[3],
we can conclude that Pushkin’s story occurs in the 1830’s (1770 + 60 = 1830),
roughly when the story was actually written (1833). However, in the opera,
Catherine the Great (who died in 1796) makes an appearance at the masked ball
which means that the story takes place much earlier than in the original, i.e.
around the late 18th century. Apparently this shift back in time was the idea
of Vsevolozhsky who was the Director of the Imperial Theatres. In fact, he was
the one who suggested Tchaikovsky to write the opera, who was reluctant to do
another Pushkin opera at first. From references to Mozart such as the text from
Tomsky’s Ballade “he amorously whispered over her ears words sweeter than the
sounds of Mozart” to the melody of Prilepa and Milovzor’s duet that reminds us
of Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen from Act
II of the Magic Flute, Tchaikovsky captures the spirit of this era.
♠ Love ♠
In the beginning of
the opera, Herman is madly in love with a girl. He doesn’t even know her name
however this doesn’t bother him as much as he is troubled by the fact that she
may never belong to him because of her higher social status. In the opera, we
observe how Herman’s object of attention gradually shifts from Liza to the
three cards. The tragic part lies in the fact that even when he does eventually
wins Liza’s love, he becomes so obsessed with the cards to the point that he
forgets what he wanted them for in the first place and abandons her. When he
realises it’s too late - at the end of the opera, as he is dying after stabbing
himself, he sees an image of her - “Liza, is that you? You’re here!” - the
first and last time he ever calls Liza by her name in the entire opera (almost
as though in response to his I don’t know
her name Aria from the beginning of Act I).
In the opera, it seems
that Herman and Liza notice each other in the Summer Gardens of St Petersburg.
In Pushkin’s original, Lizaveta Ivanovna looks out the window of the Countess’
place while working on some embroidery and notices Hermann the young engineer
who is looking towards her from the street. The main difference is not the
location however, but the fact that Tchaikovsky’s Herman was actually in love
with Liza initially where as Pushkin’s Hermann uses Lizaveta Ivanovna as a
means to gain access to the Countess’ place in order to find out the secret
cards.
♠ Money ♠
Pushkin’s Hermann puts
47,000 roubles on his cards in the first game, while Tchaikovsky’s Herman bets
40,000 (Tchaikovsky pocketed the remaining 7,000 roubles, it seems).
♠ Duel ♠
When Hermann shows up
to Chekalinsky’s to play for the third time after having won two consecutive
nights, Pushkin describes this scene as though “it looked like a duel”.
Tchaikovsky takes this idea further by using the invented rival character
Prince Yeletsky as Herman’s opponent in the third game. As Herman yells “My
Ace!” as he holds the third card which turns out to be the Queen of Spades, the
brass chords remind us of the duel scene in Onegin
(in fact the chords used are essentially the same - only played backwards
with slightly different rhythm and orchestration).
♠ Death ♠
According to Pushkin’s
conclusion, Hermann goes insane and ends up in hospital while Lizaveta Ivanovna
marries an amiable young man. Tchaikovsky’s version is more dramatic in that
Herman and Liza both die in the opera. Herman stabs himself to death after
losing at the game of cards, while Liza throws herself into the river when she
is convinced that her lover Herman 1) is a murderer 2) has gone mad and 3)
leaves her for the gambling house. This suicide scene of Liza’s is almost as
though a reference to Chapter 2 of Pushkin’s story, where the Countess orders
Tomsky to bring her a novel where there are no “drowned dead bodies” as she is
terribly afraid of them. Perhaps though, for Pushkin who feared insanity more
than death, going crazy is a worse outcome for Hermann.
♠ Non-Pushkin Text ♠
The most noticeable
example of non-Pushkin text which Tchaikovsky used in the opera is Laurette’s Aria from Grétry’s opera Richard the Lionheart (1784) in Scene 4.
This is sung by the Old Countess as she reminisces of her younger days while
falling asleep.
Other examples of text other than Pushkin can be
found in:
♤ Liza and Polina’s
duet in Act I - the text is taken from the elegy Вечер (Evening) by Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1806)
♤ Polina’s romance,
also from Act I - comes from Надпсиь на
гробе пастушки (Inscription on the Tomb of a Shepherd) by Konstantin
Nikolaevich Batyushkov (1810)
♤ Act II opens with
the chorus of guests at the masked ball with passages from Любителю художеств (To the Lover of Arts) by Gavriil Romanovich
Derzhavin (1791)
♤ The Pastorale Sincerity of the Shepherdess in Act II
is based on a poem of the same title by Pyotr Matveevich Karabanov (1886)
♤ The majestic music at entrance of Catherine
the Great uses the text from the refrain of Гром
победы, раздавайся! (Let the Thunder
of Victory Rumble!) - the unofficial Russian anthem by Osip Antonovich
Kozlovsky with text by Derzhavin.
♤ More text by
Derzhavin is used in Act III - Tomsky sings a funny song to entertain his
fellow gamblers, text from Шуточное
желание (A Jesting Wish) (1802)
♠ ♠ ♠
Do you think that the
opera Queen of Spades would have been
the same if Tchaikovsky had written it strictly according to Pushkin? Is that
even possible? Or perhaps is that exactly what he did? As usual, I make lists,
and you be the judge.
And now for a short list of similarities between
Pushkin and Tchaikovsky:
♠ They were both pretty cool.
