The director of this production of Queen of Spades puts Tchaikovsky himself into the opera, letting him morph into Prince Yeletsky, who loves and loses Lisa. Vladimir Stoyanova sings the prince, with Eva-Marie Westbroek as Lisa and Aleksandr Antonenko as Ghermann, the gambler. Felicity Palmer scored a triumph as the Countess, Lisa's grandmother.

Nina Stemme is Brunnhilde with Stefan Vinke as Siegfried, John Lundgren as the Wanderer, and Gerhard Siegel as Mime in the third installment of the Ring of the Nibelung at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, last fall.

The first evening of Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungen was recorded last fall at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Johannes Martin Kraenzle is Alberich, who gives up Love for the Rheingold. Gerhard Siegel is his brother Mime, who covets the power of the Rheingold, and John Lundgren and Alan Oke are Wotan and Loge, who plot and steal the Rheingold to pay for a new home for the gods, Walhalla.

The production from 1980, an early Live from the Met broadcast, has stood up to time in very good health. Isabel Leonard is our latest Blanche de la Force, Karita Mattila is the Old Prioress, Mme. de Croissy, and Adrianne Pieczonka is the new Prioress, Mme. Lidoine.