On 29 November, Vasily Petrenko is set to mark his New York debut conducting Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades at The Metropolitan Opera. In a production by Elijah Moshinsky, Aleksandrs Antonenko will perform the role of Hermann while Lise Davidsen, also making her Metropolitan Opera debut, will perform his lover Lisa. This is the first time The Queen of Spades has been performed at The Met since 2011.
Set in Petrenko’s home city of Saint Petersburg, The Queen of Spades was an opera that he grew up with, having made one of his first ever opera appearances as part of the boys’ choir. “I want to find the balance and delicacy of the score”, comments Petrenko. “In The Queen of Spades there are many delicate, quiet moments; probably the main climaxes happen in the quiet moments rather than the loud moments — the psychological climaxes. If there is coherence between what’s going on visually onstage and what it says in the music, that can make an incredible effect.” Following 29 November, Petrenko is performing on these subsequent dates 2, 5, 8, 14, 18, 21 December 2019.