We went to the first night – actually, it was the first afternoon – of a new production of The Queen of Spades: rather Germanic, with Stefan Herheim as the Norwegian director and Berndt Purkrabek as the designer of the beautiful, but traditional set and everyone dressed up in grey semi-frock coats as versions of Tchaikovsky, who was on stage throughout. Much was made of the fact that Tchaikovsky was both gay and briefly unhappily married. Beautiful singing by Liza and the Countess.