Anyone who saw the WNO's production of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel last year, either at the Apollo or as the BBC's Christmas Day telly opera offering, will know of the remarkable visual effects that producer Richard Jones and designer John Macfarlane are able to achieve, writes Chris Gray.

Now the team are united once more, to work on the comparatively rarely seen Tchaikovsky work The Queen of Spades, the result is a night of unforgettable excitement that no one should miss.

The story itself is one to stir the soul, or rather chill it. The plot centres on the steadily growing obsession of a hard-up young officer, Herman (Vitali Taraschenko), to discover the supernatural secret that will guarantee him a winning hand at the gambling table.

The holder of the secret of the three winning cards is an aged Countess (Susan Horton) who twice permitted men to use the formula decades before during her days as a society beauty in Paris (about which she sings with haunting beauty). Her inclination to help others to fortune came to an abrupt halt, however, when an apparition informed her she would die if a third man driven by passion sought her secret, as Herman's friend Tomsky (the excellent baritone Robert Hayward) explains.

Notwithstanding this, Herman determines to uncover the secret. At first his motive is simply to enrich himself, the better to serve as a suitor to the Countess's lovely ward Liza (Susan Chilcott), despite the fact that she is already engaged to Prince Yeletsky (Garry Magee).

Later, the cards' secret becomes and end in itself for Herman, whose descent into madness is brilliantly charted in Mr Taraschenko's superb performance. His confrontation with the Countess in her bathroom (pictured above) proves fatal to the old lady, but she has her revenge when she returns to haunt him as a truly terrifying skeletal spectre.

Master-melodist that he is, Tchaikovsky provides a night of rare beauty in the music, with plenty of thrilling climaxes to mirror the action. "Swan Lake on speed," I heard one member of the audience describe it. This was neatly put.

The Queen of Spades can be seen again on Friday, October 20.