Recurring Obsessions

The tale of a production delayed by several seasons due to the Covid pandemic should be familiar to most opera-goers by now, but the Deutsche Oper’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame – scheduled initially for Spring of 2020 – added an unfortunate twist: Graham Vick, the original director, died of complications related to Covid in 2021. Although the two principals – Martin Muehle and Sondra Radvanovsky – and conductor Sebastian Weigle remained in place, the direction was eventually taken over by Sam Brown; it is difficult to say how much of Sir Graham’s preparations were incorporated into the final version, but the staging presented on the evening offered a respectful, stylish and fairly straightforward retelling of the story while maintaining an objective distance from its psychological and supernatural undercurrents.

The staging…