Cardigan venue to screen Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades

Containing some of the composer’s greatest music, this production is a powerful study of destructive obsession.

The story follows Gherman, a man who is caught between the woman he loves and a destructive fixation. The production is set in 1890, the year of the opera’s premiere.

In his study, Tchaikovsky imagines the opera into life as his own story, its characters giving voice to his unfulfilled desires. This is an engrossing portrayal of a tortured creative artist and a gripping piece of gothic storytelling.

Tchaikovsky began work on The Queen of Spades in 1889. He based it on a short story by Alexander Pushkin, one of his favourite writers.

He and his brother Modest (his co-librettist) dramatically altered Pushkin's plot, turning Gherman from a cynical opportunist into an ardent lover and Liza into a tragic figure.

The penniless soldier Gherman has fallen in love with Liza, even though she is engaged to his friend Yeletsky.

Gherman learns that Liza's grandmother the Countess knows a winning three-card formula. Gherman determines to wrest the secret from the Countess, gain a fortune through gambling and marry Liza.

Tchaikovsky put a great deal of work into the opera's premiere at St Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre in 1890, and was thrilled by its success.

The Queen of Spades is one of Tchaikovsky's most impressive and varied scores, containing grand choruses, intimate arias and duets (such as Liza and Gherman's passionate Act I love duet), a masquerade paying tribute to Mozart and a terrifying supernatural episode.

Stefan Herheim's spectacular production places Tchaikovsky himself at the heart of the action, and asks searching questions about the nature of creativity and the parallels between life and art.

The Queen of Spades comes to the Royal Opera House in a new production with English subtitles that has already garnered five star reviews in Amsterdam.

Tickets available now from torchtheatre.co.uk