Edmundas Seilius

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.

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.