Pushkin’s moody story, set in the St Petersburg imperial court, is capable of multiple interpretations. It is clearly ‘an eternal tale of gambling and avarice’ but also a fantastical excursion into the supernatural and an exploration of how over-weaning obsession erodes rational behaviour.

Tchaikovsky had a huge and immediate success with his 1890 operatic version, first performed in St Petersburg and then a week later in Kyiv.