Queen of spades Opera

 

 Queen of Spades is a 3 act, seven scene opera created by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, one of the most popular and widely renowned Russian opera writers. The story is based off a short story by Alexander Pushkin. The first showing of this opera was in St Petersburgh, Russia, in 1890 at Mariinsky Theater.

The opera itself is rather short being only about 2 hours to watch from the video that I watched on Youtube. From what I could tell the main actor in the drama who plays the character Herman, has the most singing parts and is singing for nearly the entirety of the 2 and a half hours of the play. It is very impressive that there are people capable of sounding so commanding and consistent throughout the entirety of this opera. The version of the opera I watched was done in the 1980s and the art style was very 1800’s Russian. Judging by the play I watched I can tell this would have been a rather exciting and relatable story to go along with. It is about a soldier in love with a woman who does not know he is, and her grandmother the “Queen of Spades.” A famously known gambler who was notorious for winning by trading amorous favors to win as a young lady.

The opera is not very technologically advanced, the sets seemed to be very static and not a huge amount of special lighting effects were used either. The focus of this drama was on the story telling rather than the set design. And it was very successful it’s a very well done story and the singing was top notch. One can only imagine the purity of the original and if this remake was done this well how well the first version must have been.

The story was perceived as a revival to the Romanticism style of storytelling as it became an unviable source of entertainment in the 1800’s. This was also one of the fastest written operas written by Tchaikovsky, as it was written in 44 days and performed the same year.

Queen of Spades is a very dramatic yet relatable story and could be quite easily be turned into a video game. The story could very well be turned into an RPG style game, taking elements from games such as Skyrim, Mass Effect, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Deus Ex Machina, LA Noire, and many more. This game would be played in a third person over the shoulder view following Herman the main character. The player would follow Herman as he travels to the gambling halls, observing the facial expressions, eye movements and body language similar to games like Deus Ex, and LA Noire. Deciding after viewing the other characters you interact with how to best handle each instance during the gambling situations. When it comes to the relationship with Liza you could use those body language and eye movements to tell if the flirting and conversation is being effective.

  When scene 2 of act one starts you would switch over to control of Liza as she dances and using quick time event controls you would successful complete the dances and handle the situation of the governess scolding her and her friends. And during the scene with Herman threatening suicide over her engagement to someone else she would have to make sure that he would not end up committing suicide as in games like Life is Strange, or The Wolf Among Us, and if the player fails to persuade Herman out of suicide the game would be over and could only advance by successfully dissolving the situation. From there the player would have to successfully hide Herman from the Countess and if successful would end with a fading out love scene.

 The game would then time skip to the masked ball where you play as Herman again being tormented by his friends. He receives a letter from Liza to meet him later and instead decides to go to the Queen of Spades room to try and figure out her secret, and takes too long then you have to hide as in games like Amnesia, and other horror style hiding games.

 After successfully hiding, you will have to surprise and question the “Queen” about her secret to winning and to prevent her from calling for help hold her at gun point, no matter what you say or do she will die of fright and you would be discovered by Liza. Causing her to run away cursing him and ending their affair. The ending of the game would turn to more of a horror style game as he gets haunted by the dead Countess and she tells him the card combination he so desperately wanted from her so that he can marry Liza and make everything right.

 The game then time skips to the meeting place that Liza chose at the Winter Canal, and after uttering words of assurance the game turns into a cutscene where Herman starts babbling on about the Queen of Spades and as it gets worse and worse to the part where Herman no longer even recognizes Liza, she commits suicides.

 From this point on the game would be in a dark misty view as Herman goes back to the barracks and bets with his fellow soldiers on a game, Herman playing the cards he learned he bets 40,000 rubies. Somehow winning on the first two choices, the Three and the Seven. Betting everything on his last choice, the Ace, but the game fades to darkness and reveals the Queen of Spades, the ghost of the countess appears laughing at his failure and the success of her vengeance, Herman asks forgiveness of Yeletsky and Liza, and regardless of how hard the player fights the controls. Kills himself.

 

 

Works Cited

Sharp, M. E. "An Anthology of Russian Literature from Earliest Writings to Modern Fiction." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.

Artemusicaeca. "The Queen of Spades: Bolshoi Opera 1983." YouTube. YouTube, 11 Oct. 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.