Composers · Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Stage · Op. 68 · 1890
Pique Dame, Op. 68
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky · Opera
Tchaikovsky's three-act opera, based on a Pushkin story, about a young officer who is consumed by a gambling secret.
What to listen for
Act I opens in a park in St. Petersburg, with children at play, then moves to the young officer Hermann, who is in love with Lisa but also haunted by a story about her grandmother, an old Countess who supposedly knows a winning card secret. The scene ends in Lisa's room, where Hermann bursts in and she is drawn to him.
Act II begins with a masked ball, where Hermann receives a note and meets Lisa in the garden. He then sneaks into the Countess's bedroom to learn her secret. She dies of fright, and her ghost later appears to him with three cards.
Act III has Lisa waiting for Hermann by a canal, where she realizes what he has done. Hermann turns up at a gambling house and bets on the cards the ghost gave him, with a fatal third card.
In the concert hall, orchestras sometimes play excerpts such as the dance music from the ball or the gloomy scenes around the Countess. There is no standard overture, so a concert performance may present the whole opera with singers.
The story
Tchaikovsky wrote the opera in 1890, much of it quickly while traveling in Italy, to a libretto by his brother Modest after a short story by Alexander Pushkin. It was first staged at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in December 1890. It remains one of the most performed Russian operas, loved for its atmosphere of fate and obsession.
First time hearing it?
- A staged performance runs about three hours with intermissions; a concert version is similar.
- It is sung in Russian, so look for translations or supertitles.
- Unlike many operas, it has no standalone overture, so concerts that perform parts of it usually pick arias and dances.
Written by OrchestraFinder, reviewed October 2026.