The Tsarina’s Slippers | Opera review

Royal Opera House, London

Composers’ attitudes to their own works are often curious. Tchaikovsky believed The Tsarina’s Slippers (Cherevichki in Russian; more correctly “little boots” in English) was his finest opera. Posterity has questioned his judgment and will probably continue to do so in the wake of this expensive-looking production that combines the forces of the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet. It doesn’t, by any means, make a case for the work as a lost masterpiece.

Tchaikovsky’s source was Nikolai Gogol’s story Christmas Eve, about Oxana, a wilful Ukrainian girl who agrees to marry her blacksmith boyfriend Vakula if he gets her some of Catherine the Great’s footwear. In order to do so, Vakula forces into his service a none-too-bright devil, who is one of the several would-be lovers of his witchy mother Solokha. Their phantasmagoric Christmas Eve journey allows Tchaikovsky to contrast folksy Ukrainean vigour with rarefied 18th-century St Petersburg, as well as painting a rather questionable portrait of a unified Russian empire, blithely preparing for the festive season.

The material is uneven, though. The dances are delightful, while Vakula’s moments of doubt permit Tchaikovsky to examine male vulnerability, where he is, of course, supreme. The rest of it, however, is charming if insubstantial. Tchaikovsky, who could turn against his own music if he considered it too self-revealing, probably adored Cherevichki because it is safe and a bit anonymous.

Francesca Zambello’s big, gaudy staging plays at times to the opera’s weaknesses by emphasising spectacle at the expense of character. There are dancing bears and whirling Cossacks. Catherine’s court spills across the stage from beneath the skirts of a huge gilded statue of the Empress. Choreographer Alastair Marriott serves up mock Petipa in St Petersburg and an elegant divertissement, reminiscent of Ashton’s Ondine, for the water nymphs who distract Vakula on his journey.

Musically, things could be tighter. The opera needs a stronger conductor than the rather routine Alexander Polianichko. Both Maxim Mikhailov’s devil and Larissa Diadkova’s lubricious Solokha were having problems with their high notes on opening night, while Olga Guryakova’s Oxana was unremittingly loud. On the other hand, Vsevolod Grivnov is a fabulous Vakula, convincing you that he has the soul of a poet in the body of a nerd. And the great Sergei Leiferkus makes a brief but show-stealing appearance as His Excellency, Catherine’s nameless lover.

Until 8 December. Box office: 020-7304 4000.

• This article was amended on Monday 23 November 2009. The original stated that the devil’s role was taken by Vladimir Matorin. This has been corrected.