A “Virtual Quotation” in Tchaikovsky’s Opera “The Queen of Spades” as a “Counter-textual Paradox”

Abstract

Tchaikovsky’s opera “The Queen of Spades” has been drawing permanent attention of many researchers. The block of issues related with cross-textual interactions, such as quotations, stylizations, etc., is of special interest here. In the Foreword to the first publication of the libretto, Modest Tchaikovsky mentioned some verse by Konstantin Ryleyev, which may be construed as a so-called “virtual quotation.”

Keywords

Alexander Pushkin, Konstantin Ryleyev, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, “The Queen of Spades”, libretto, text, counter-text, quotation.