Vladimiras Prudnikovas

Eléazar, a Jewish goldsmith burdened by a terrible secret. Soile Isokoski is his beloved daughter Rachel, in love with a man who turns out not to be Samuel, a simple workman in her father’s shop, but Prince Léopold. Rachel is sent to her gruesome death by Cardinal de Brogni, who discovers Eléazar’s secret too late.

The story is set in a wild and remote corner of 19th-century Lithuania, where folk customs and pagan beliefs still have a hold sway on the population. Here we meet a strange family consisting of the young count, Michel (Mykolas), who exhibits animalistic behaviours, and his mad mother who, as legend has it, was raped by a bear at her own wedding. Reputed to be the product of this bestial assault, the half-human half-bear falls in love with the beautiful girl from the next manor, Miss Julia, and asks for her hand in marriage. Will this union be enough to tame the young count’s dual nature?

A general and his stepdaughter are both heavily in debt. When the family's tutor, in love with the girl, gets lucky at the gambling table, he tries to rescue her from her desperate situation, but she outright rejects him. Prokofiev's first full-length opera The Gambler, based on Dostoyevsky's partly autobiographical novella ironically written to settle gambling debts, is rarely performed today. This 2020 production brings together director Vasily Barkhatov and conductor Modestas Pitrenas and stars the winner of the 2019 International Opera Award, Asmik Grigorian, in the role of Polina.