Tchaikovsky. "The Queen of Spades" ("Pique Dame"). Act II. Scene I. Pastoral

[columbsaki]

what is this scene about? How does it relate to the rest of the opera? So confused!

[hermanmonster5410]

@columbsaki

U r right-this sceene has nothing to do with the storyline.

The opera is based on A. Pushkin's short novel, to which the composer and his brother Modest made changes working on the script: the timing was set 20-30 years ealier to the reign of Katherine the Great and a ball at imperial palace with this little jewel-The Pastoral-was created to add more splenor to the opera and perhaps because the novel though impressive does not have that many scenes - to convert it to a 3 hour show

[hermanmonster5410]

@columbsaki

Correcting myself: we may draw an allegoric relation between the Pastoral and the main storyline. In the Pastoral a young shepherdess Prilepa loves a young&poor shephard Milovzor. A rich old suitor Zlatogor comes&offers Prilepa gold, precious stones, etc but she chooses Milovzor who offers only love. Lisa being engaged to a rich aristocrat prefers Herman, a small rank army officer - so there's a parallel here. The ball is at some aristocrat's house, not imperial palace.

[columbsaki]

@hermanmonster5410 thanks so much!

[BelNatalya76]

this is a smashing staging! excellent voices, Mozart-style scene, great costumes, fabulous playing, everything is so beautiful and outsanding. exactly as it should be. I watch it almost every day. Thank You for this joy!

[maxi36440529]

god, Tchaikovsky's a genius ♥

i'd love to go see this opera :')

[MrAndreios]

...so she doesn`t need gold and diamonds of a reach man and she can be happy with her lovely friend living even in a shelter...ha ha ha...so far from reality...in Holland for sure)))). They marry when there are enough money for a kids` kids)))))

[BelNatalya76]

@MrAndreios if real things were constantly described in literature and art, imagine, how many people would not even want to live. remember "suffering of young Verter". people need fantasy and fairytale.

[MrAndreios]

@BelNatalya76 that what I wrote was an irony. You are right! An artistic reality exists for the purpose of developing them as a personalities.