ON THE BIG SCREEN

Teatro alla Scala presents a new production of Tchaikovsky’smasterpiece drawn from Pushkin’s novel in verse. Its debut in 1879 marked aturning point in Russian opera, abandoning historical tableaux and spectacular effectsto paint an intimate portrait of a small group of characters.

The composer wrote: Those for whom the first prerequisite ofan opera is stage action will not be satisfied by it. Those, on the other hand,who in an opera are capable of looking for the musical illustration ofeveryday, simple, universally human emotions, far removed from anything tragicor theatrical, may (I hope) actually turn out to be satisfied with my opera.

The music is entrusted to the youthful Timur Zangiev, whostepped into the spotlight when he replaced Valery Gergiev in the Pique Dame andwas consecrated at the Salzburg Festival. Stage direction is in the hands of MarioMartone, now in his tenth La Scala production, returning to the Russianrepertoire after the triumphant Khovanshchina of Mussorgsky in 2019: as then,set des ign is by Margherita Palli