DCCXXXV. PROKOFIEV, Sergei: The Gambler, Op. 24

DCCXXXV. PROKOFIEV, Sergei (1891-1953)

The Gambler, Op. 24 (1929)
Sergei Aleksashkin, General
Tatiana Pavlovskaya, Pauline
Vladimir Galuzin, Alexei
Larisa Dyadkova, Babulenka
Nikolai Gassiev, Marquis
Alexander Gergalov, Mr. Astley
Nadezhda Serdyuk, Mlle. Blanche
Andrei Popov, Prince Nilsky
Oleg Sychev, Baron Wurmerhelm
Andrei Spekhov, Potapych
Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
Valery Gergiev, cond.
(2:06:20)

1918

It takes a long time to compose an opera.

Prokofiev was only 23 in 1914, when he shared his idea to base an opera on Dostoyevsky's 1866 novella (read it here) with Albert Coates, the conductor of the Mariinsky, who promised him a production.

He wrote the piano score in '15-'16 and orchestrated it in '17. Meyerhold would be the stage director, but in the wake of the February Revolution, everything was put on hold.

Fast forward to 1929 (Prokofiev revised it in '27), where it was finally performed at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels.

The Bolshoi performed it at the Met in 1975, and the Met finally mounted its own production in 2001 -- the same year it finally premiered in Russia at the Bolshoi Theatre, conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

A terrific scenario by a young Prokofiev (who wrote his own libretto), this Gergiev production is magnificent -- with English subs.