In an extra-planetary Roulettenbourg, resembling the Sierra Nevada, a semi-circle with illuminated contours emerges, sinking into the uneven ground and revealing a crater from where the characters – extravagant, bare-legged, wigs and old-fashioned costumes more or less brought up to date with all the inelegance that requires – enter and leave. Here’s a non-exhaustive glimpse of the set for The Gambler (der Spieler in German), currently on stage at the Staatsoper Sttutgart, which may come as a surprise but is unfailingly theatrically and orchestrally powerful.
The reference to an extraterrestrial reality is not without its reminders of Peter Sellars’ recent Salzburg production, but the resemblance stops there. Everything else is the fruit of director Axel Ranisch’s overflowing and extremely well-executed imagination. He makes the work his own with sufficient ease to work out every detail of the energetic, incessant acting that we see on stage – just like the lively score, there’s never a dull moment on stage. “La Cage aux Folles”, “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, … so many works could have inspired the zany side of the production, but the creative extravagance does not stop at caricature: the acting is fine and subtle, based on a libretto which, despite its original inspiration (the work of Dostoyevsky), allows these licence.
The exercise is all the more successful in that the orchestra, under the feverish baton of Alexander Vitlin, draws on the contrasts in the score – an excellent translation of the indomitable, antinomic, even driven feelings to which the characters are subjected – and helps to reinforce the desire for opposition between the farcical and the catastrophic. It was undoubtedly this cacophonous environment, a construction finely achieved thanks to the synergy between stage and pit, that contributed to the collapse of Daniel Brenna’s tender and elegant Alexis. An hapless subject in the decadent court of Goran Jurić’s grandiloquent and opulent General, harbouring a disgusted antipathy towards Elmar Gilbertsson’s (delicious) Marquis, his only point of refuge is the ambivalent, brassy-voiced Polina of the excellent Aušrine Stundyte.
Few relationships in the operatic repertoire are as cyclothymic as that between the tutors of the General’s children and his daughter-in-law. We don’t know how far Poline is playing with Alexis’s feelings – with a nascent (and growing) sadism. The question is raised by the Lithuanian soprano’s nuanced performance and her ability to transform the most sordid intentions into gentle affection. In any case, at the end of the performance, it becomes clear that it is through her and because of her that Alexis’ unbridled delirium culminates in his mental and emotional perdition.
Charging Poline? That’s not our aim, especially as the portrait of the character evolves in other directions depending on the circumstances: how happily she lets herself be kissed by Véronique Gens’ sumptuous Babulenka, and how vehemently she tries to save her once her fortune has been lost! In sum, it’s less a question of Manichaeism than of a spirit of survival, pushing people in a situation with no apparent favourable outcome to play with what may be the most vulnerable in those they love. And that wonderful chorus at the end? People famished for money, capable of the most nefarious attitudes to win what luck has awarded to someone else. The cyclopean power of the voices united in this unison cry generated a crushing effect at the end of the drama, announcing that Alexis’s loss was consummated. An honourable and unforgettable performance by the excellent Staatsopernchor Stuttgart.
A disconcerting reading of a work that spontaneously exudes the fragrance of annihilation in the purest Russian tradition, but very well defended by a perfectly balanced cast. Let us hope that the future will bring us other initiatives reproducing such success and enabling us to discover works just as rare as this superb Spieler.
Casting: General (Goran Jurić) · Polina (Aušrine Stundyte) · Alexei (Daniel Brenna) · Babulenka (Véronique Gens) · Marquis (Elmar Gilbertsson) · Mr. Astley (Shigeo Ishino) · Mlle. Blanche (Stine Marie Fischer) · Prince Nilski (Robin Neck) · Baron Wurmerhelm (Peter Lobert) · Potapych (Jacobo Ochoa) · First Croupier (Hojong Song) · Second Croupier (Ilja Werger) · Gaudy Lady (Olga Paul) · Pale Lady (Catriona Smith) · Revered Lady (Simone Jackel) · Staatsorchester Stuttgart · Staatsopernchor Stuttgart.
(For further informations) Link to the Staatsoper Stuttgart website: Der Spieler (2025 production) – Staatsoper Stuttgart
