Prokofiev The Gambler opera to libretto by the composer. Directed 2010 by Temur Chkheidze at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Stars Sergei Aleksashkin (The General), Tatiana Pavlovskaya (Polina), Vladimir Galuzin (Alexei), Larisa Dyadkova (Babulenka), Nikolai Gassiev (Marquis), Alexander Gergalov (Mr. Ashley), Nadezhda Serdyuk (Blanche), Andrei Popov (Prince Nilsky), Oleg Sychev (Baron Wurmerhelm), and Andrei Spekhov (Potapych). Valery Gergiev conducts the Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus. Set designs by Zinovy Margolin; costumes by Tatiana Noginova; lighting by Gleb Fishtinsky. Directed for TV by Laurent Gentot. Sung in Russian. Released 2013, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
Richard Fairman, writing in the Awards 2013 issue of Gramophone at page 108, curses this Mariinsky disc with faint praise and urges his readers to get the 2008 Barenboim production of the Gamble at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden with Kristine Opolais. But David Shengold is more generous in the October 2013 Opera News (page 60), where the Mariinsky performance is picked as the month's Critic's Choice of new opera videos.
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