As opening title of this year’s Festival della Valle d’Itria, the newly appointed artistic director Sebastian Schwarz chose Sergej Prokofiev’s The Gambler, in the French version entitled Le joueur that was shown in 1929 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels.

This is the first Russian work featured by the Festival, and the choice of the French version is a testimony to the complicated performance history of Prokofiev’s work. Written during the Russian revolution, The Gambler could not be staged in Saint Petersburg as planned, and the composer, who had moved abroad in the meantime, opted for the Brussels' premiere, where it was performed with the French rhythmic version by Paul Spaak of the libretto that the composer himself had written, adapting Fëdor Dostoevskij’s novel.

The performance was directed by David Pountney in collaboration with set and costume designer Leila Fteita. The action was staged inside a big roulette wheel, with red and black as dominating colors of the sets, and green lighting in the third act. A giant mirror as cover allowed the audience to have a double view of the stage, from the front and from above, thus also showing the upper part of the gaming tables. This setting adapted perfectly to the excited style of the music, and its continuous flexible declamation. The costumes remindful of the futuristic paintings of the composer’s times also adapted well to the musical style, and the numerous principals moved frantically on stage thus giving the impression of a continuous, never ending action.

Tenor Sergej Radchenko portrayed perfectly the obsessed character of the main protagonist Alexis, his compulsion growing in the third and fourth acts until the agitated finale with Pauline, interpreted in a very compelling manner by soprano Martina Tampakopoulos. Also very convincing were Silvia Beltrami as the compulsive gambling Grand-Mère, bass Andrew Greenan as an arrogant Général with soprano Ksenia Chubunova as his lover Blanche, tenor Paul Curievici as a tricky Marquis, as well as all the other principals: Alexander Ilvakhin as Mr. Astley, Nilsky Sandro Rossi as Le prince, Strahinja Djokic as Le baron Wurmerheim and Gonzalo Godoy Sepulveda as Potapytch.

The orchestra of Bari’s Teatro Petruzzelli played with commitment under the baton of Maestro Jan Latham-Koenig, who conducted highlighting the hallucinatory side of the opera. I saw the second performance, which was very successful and ended in applause for everyone.