Main Characters
Character | Voice Type | Description |
Frederick "Freddie" Trumper | Tenor | "The American": The United States' champion—a self-absorbed, fame-and-fortune-seeking, short-tempered, Russophobic bad boy, who either matures, aiding Anatoly a year after his own defeat, or remains selfish and wins (depending upon the version). |
Anatoly Sergievsky | Baritone/Tenor | "The Russian": The Soviet Union's champion—a troubled father and husband who despises the propaganda and politics of the tournament, eventually deciding to defect from his homeland, even at the cost of deserting his family. |
Florence Vassy | Mezzo-Soprano or Belter | Freddie's strong-willed English (though, American, in the Broadway version) second and paramour, who was born in Budapest and separated from her presumably captured or killed father during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, having now no further knowledge of his whereabouts (though she is of Czech birth in the Sydney version); she feels strained by Freddie's brashness and falls in love with Anatoly, eventually becoming his mistress. |
The Arbiter | Baritone/Tenor | The coldly objective, no-nonsense referee of the championship tournament and also the president of the International Chess Federation. |
Molokov | Bass or Bass-Baritone | Anatoly's slick second who is also, in fact, a manipulative KGB agent; in the West End version his first name is mentioned as Alexander; in the Broadway and Sydney versions, it is Ivan. |
Walter de Courcey | Bass-Baritone | A media personality of the tournament and a secret CIA agent; his surname is sometimes spelled "de Courcy." |
Svetlana Sergievsky | Mezzo-Soprano or Belter | Anatoly's estranged wife who, under Molokov's machinations, tries to persuade Anatoly to return to his homeland; although upset at Anatoly's betrayal, she also understands that Florence has given Anatoly something she cannot herself. (In actual Russian, her surname is stylized as the feminine "Sergievskaya.") |
Read more about this topic: Chess (musical)
Famous quotes containing the words main and/or characters:
“I could live without acting.... Acting is a gift Ive received. And Im grateful for it and I enjoy it. But its not the main point of my life. It never was.”
—Jeanne Moreau (b. 1928)
“A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.”
—Clifford Irving (b. 1930)