Life’s merry-go-round of avarice, addiction, and impropriety are set within the framework of an enormous shattered mirror and fragmented carousel (sets, Roy Spahn) in the Vienna State Opera’s first original production of Prokofiev’s Igrok (The Gambler) - listed here as Der Spieler, but performed in Russian. (A guest production was presented in the house in January 1964 by the Belgrade National Theatre).

The work was completed in 1917 when the composer was aged twenty six, with the first performance taking place in Brussels (in a French translation) in 1929. The composer, incidentally, wrote his own libretto based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same title, in which the writer’s own addiction to roulette is echoed.

Vienna’s sumptuous production hints at the roaring 20’s in certain aspects with its flamboyant costumes (Mechthild Seipel), swinging pearls, and crimped locks.  

Its strong cast is intense - with characters well-defined and sculpted by Karoline Gruber, while maintaining admirable harmony with the score in action and style. Simple, symbolic effects include showers of gold glitter, coloured balloons which dissipate with the General’s inheritance hopes, and strewn corpses with the carousel’s ultimate demise.  

Apart from the leads, bizarre figures in white face, grotesque masks, and punkish wigs form the enormous cast of over thirty (including the six unnamed gamblers) as the plot progresses to its orgiastic finale. 

Among the main protagonists, Dmitry Ulyanov’s General dominated, with his sonorous, indomitable bass and physical plasticity creating a memorable operatic figure. Elena Guseva’s compelling Polina whets one’s appetite for future roles - what a Jenufa or Kátja she would make! Alexei’s fiendish demands were superbly managed by Misha Didyk’s intense handling and inexhaustible resources, while Elena Maximova evidently revelled in her slinky Mae West-like Blanche.
Linda Watson was here given grand opportunity (which she well-siezed) to flaunt Babulenka’s power and wealth as the declining and rather decadent grandmother, with Thomas Ebenstein suavely embracing the glitzy cut-throat Marquis.

Simone Young maintained tight pit-to-stage coordination, well-scaling the composer’s opulent orchestration to accommodate her cast, while guaranteeing unbounded dramatic effect in a most stirring evening.