Composition History
The management of the Imperial Theatre offered a commission to Tchaikovsky to write an opera based on the plot sketch by Ivan Vsevolozhsky in 1887/88. After turning it down initially, Tchaikovsky accepted it in 1889. Toward the end of that year, he met with the theater's managers to discuss the material and sketch out some of the scenes.
He completed the full score of the opera in Florence in only 44 days. Later on, working with the tenor who was to perform the lead character's part, he created two versions of Herman’s aria in the seventh scene, using two different keys. The changes can be found in the proof sheets and inserts for the first and second editions of the printed version of the score.
While composing the music, Tchaikovsky actively edited the libretto, changing some of the text and adding his own lyrics to two arias.
Read more about this topic: The Queen Of Spades (opera)
Famous quotes containing the words composition and/or history:
“There is singularly nothing that makes a difference a difference in beginning and in the middle and in ending except that each generation has something different at which they are all looking. By this I mean so simply that anybody knows it that composition is the difference which makes each and all of them then different from other generations and this is what makes everything different otherwise they are all alike and everybody knows it because everybody says it.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)