MUSIC

The Washington Opera has hired a new conductor and stage director--Semyon Vekshtein and Roman Terkeckyj, respectively--for its production of Tchaikovsky’s “Pique Dame.” The husband-wife team of conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and stage director Galina Vishnevskaya resigned when the company decided to present the San Francisco Opera production of “Pique Dame” instead of mounting a new production. Rostropovich said he and Vishnevskaya could not “compromise” their own conception of the opera. Pat Fleischer, the company’s director of development, marketing and public relations, said the Washington Opera had received a $400,000 grant earmarked for an original production of “Pique Dame,” but elected to use San Francisco’s sets and costumes to save the financially strapped company “in excess of $200,000” and end its year “in the black.”