A New Hand Is Dealt to ‘Queen of Spades’

Last week, Placido Domingo opened the Los Angeles Opera season with a burst of star power. For the company’s first Russian opera, “The Queen of Spades,” he assembled several of the leading Russian singers of our day along with Russia’s most important conductor, Valery Gergiev. And Domingo, the company’s artistic director, added his considerable stellar presence to the opera as well.

But not even Domingo can keep all that stellar operatic illumination burning throughout the run of the production. Gergiev was on hand for only the first three performances, replaced by Gianandrea Noseda, and on Wednesday night, Gegam Grigorian, in his Los Angeles debut, took over the role of Herman because Domingo has departed to open the Metropolitan Opera season in New York. Those are the two largest cast changes that can be made in this opera, and the performance now has a different character.

Noseda, who is the principal guest conductor for the Gergiev-run Maryinsky Theater (a.k.a. the Kirov) in St. Petersburg, does not go in for the dark, heavy, deeply supported, immediately identifiable sound that Gergiev managed to achieve even in his little time in Los Angeles. The Italian conductor has, instead, lightened the feel of the opera, made it more rhythmically lithe and lyrical. The orchestra sounded responsive and comfortable, but no longer inspired as the dramatic temperature was lowered and a hint of routine set in.

On the other hand, Grigorian brought with him a new sense of danger. One of Gergiev’s stalwarts at the Kirov, the short, stocky Armenian tenor is no match for Domingo’s brooding existential elegance and glamour, but he compensates by the sheer ardor he brings to the role of the gambler maniacally driven to win. He does not hesitate to overact; he does not save his voice; he does not moderate his emotions. He can sound strident when he pushes, but he uses even that for compelling dramatic effect. In the end, he gives the production just the sense of heedless danger that it needs.

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“The Queen of Spades” continues at Los Angeles Opera, Saturday, 2 p.m.; Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m., Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. $30-$165. (213) 365-3500.