Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Eugene Onegin, Lyrical Scenes in Three Acts, Op. 24 (1877-78)
Libretto by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Konstantin Shilovsky after the verse novel “Eugene Onegin” by Aleksandr Pushkin
Eugene Onegin – Mariusz Kwiecień (baritone)
Madame Larina – Makvala Kasrashvili (mezzo-soprano)
Tatiana – Tatiana Monogarova (soprano)
Olga – Margarita Mamsirova (contralto)
The nurse – Emma Sarkisyan (mezzo-soprano)
Lenski – Andrey Dunaev (tenor)
Prince Gremin – Anatolij Kotscherga (bass)
Zaretski – Valery Gilmanov (bass)
Soloists, Orchestra and Chorus of the Bolshoi Theatre / Alexander Vedernikov
Stage direction & Set design – Dmitri Tcherniakov
Costume design – Maria Danilova
Lighting design – Gleb Filshtinsky
Chorus master – Valery Borisov
Video direction – Chloé Perlemuter
rec. September 2008, Opera Palais Garnier, Paris, France
Picture Format: 1BD50 - High Definition - 16.9 – Regions A, B, C
Sound formats: PCM 2.0/DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
BELAIR CLASSIQUE BLU-RAY BAC446 [176 mins]
Eugene Onegin is undoubtedly Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin’s most famous work and arguably his masterpiece. Pushkin (1799-1837) was born in Moscow and died rather young (he was only 37 years old) in St. Petersburg. To say he was an innovative genius and deserves the title of National Poet is not an exaggeration. Pushkin was widely admired and respected in Russia even by other literary giants, as for example, Nikolai Gogol (1809-1853) who eloquently wrote of his ten year older literary colleague Pushkin, in 1834, ‘at the name Pushkin one is immediately overwhelmed with the notion of the National Poet.’ In Onegin, Pushkin demonstrates his genius especially in the creation of a new type of rhyme scheme, known as the Onegin Stanza or the Pushkin Sonet (AbAbCCddEffEgg – whereby the capital letters stand for feminine rhymes and the lowercase for masculine). Although the plot is relatively simple, Pushkin changes and contrasts the tone of the novel. For this he uses the narrator, who is educated, sophisticated and cosmopolitan, to comment on social and intellectual matters of the time, which in turn highlights the drama and brings the characters to life. Besides the beauty of the verse and language, Onegin is a wonderful read for dealing with themes that are still important and modern: life, death, love, boredom, melancholy, convention and passion.
Bearing in mind all of the above it is hardly surprising that Tchaikovsky accepted (at first with some hesitation, later enthusiastically) singer Elizaveta Lavrovskaya’s suggestion of composing an opera based on Pushkin’s novel. He began to work on the libretto himself, trying to use Pushkin’s lines as often as possible, and to compose the music for Tatyana’s letter scene. It was the scene Tchaikovsky thought the most compelling and indeed the music he wrote for it is, to my mind, among the most irresistible, beautiful and moving pieces ever created. Eugene Onegin became one of the best known, most performed operas in the world and one of Tchaikovsky’s masterpieces.
I am a great fan of this opera and so, jumped at the chance of reviewing the present Blu-ray, as it is an almost all-Russian production of a masterpiece from one of the great Russian composers. With the exception of Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecień as Onegin and Ukrainian Anatolij Kotscherga as Prince Gremin, the whole cast is Russian. Stage design, direction, lighting and costume design are all Russian too and this is a production from the Bolshoi Theatre with the Bolshoi Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Russian maestro Alexander Vedernikov. The fact that it was filmed at the Paris Opera Palais Garnier is irrelevant. With a nearly all-Russian affair I must say I expected a wonderful “night at the opera” but I am sorry to say that I was disappointed. Not the singers, the musicians or the acting because all of these were simply superb but sadly, to my mind, the production lets them down.
Director Dmitri Tcherniakov says in the notes he wrote to accompany this Blu-ray that he didn’t want to interfere with all the history of the opera Eugene Onegin in Moscow and the preceding productions that were almost a cult in Russia. Instead he wanted to stage Eugene Onegin anew and from scratch, as he puts it, to create a completely new opera, devoid of historic memory. He does indeed achieve this but to the detriment of the music and the singers, in my view.
The entire opera is performed in the one same room, which goes from being Madame Larina’s dining room, to a garden, a sitting room, the scene of the duel, the palace of prince Gremin and so on. Then there are just too many antics on stage. The excessive loud giggling ang laughing from both Olga and her mother are irritating to the point of being disruptive to the music. I understand why Tcherniakov decided to do this. It clearly illustrates that Olga especially but also her mother are frivolous and superficial women, which I suppose makes Olga’s flirting with Onegin and Lenski’s extreme reaction more believable, but it turns Madame Larina into an annoying caricature of a woman and Olga into an extremely irritating character. I found myself wishing I could push them off the stage. However, when they are singing and acting in a more discreet manner they are both very good and their performances enjoyable.
Tatiana Monogarova as Tatiana is excellent. She has a powerful, lovely rich soprano and sings with great sentiment and ease. Her portrait of the young Tatiana is poignant and she brings across the innocence and naivety of the character exceptionally well but she too suffers from the production. The famous letter scene – perhaps the most beautiful of the whole opera with certainly some of the best, most exquisite music by Tchaikovsky – is not as effective as it could be. To start with, it is a letter scene but she hardly ever writes. Instead, she stands up and while singing moves around the stage, climbs on top of the furniture, pushes it around or turns it upside down in an attempt, I think, to show how powerful her feelings for Onegin are. To my mind it fails. The noises of the furniture and her continuous movement around the stage are distracting to say the least though Monogarova seems to float above it all and still deliver beautiful singing, demonstrating the romantic, rather moving and endearing young Tatiana.
Like Monogarova, the extraordinary Mariusz Kwiecień sings the title role with great easiness, seemingly hovering above all the stage antics unphased and delivering a convincingly handsome but also bored and arrogant Onegin exceptionally. His voice is as ever powerful, sonorous, full of colour and irresistibly warm. His performance is excellent and matches Monogarova’s splendidly.
It is, however, tenor Andrey Dunaev as Lenski that is the one most impacted by this production. First, he has the thankless task of singing the song for Tatiana, which is delivered by the slightly ridiculous character of Monsieur Triquet in all the stagings I’ve seen. Not here. In this production Lenski sings Triquet’s contribution and plays the clown while delivering the song. There are lots of shenanigans on stage and silliness but, all credit to Dunaev, he still manages to sing it exceptionally well. Tcherniakov says that this is actually the original Tchaikovsky version and not the one with Monsieur Triquet singing in French, as most of us know in Europe. It may well be true but to me, it doesn’t work so well because it appears completely out of character for a young, dreamy poet like Lenski. I can’t see the benefit of doing it this way, except of course to be true to Tchaikovsky as stated by the director. The second difficulty thrown at Dunaev (though at least here it’s behind him and he’s standing quietly) is during the aria Lenski sings before the duel, which to a certain extent is a premonition of what is about to happen, meaning that Onegin will kill him. This aria is a real showstopper and the tenor’s opportunity to shine. It is beautiful, sad, moving and challenging. Dunaev’s performance is skilful and very appealing. However, not even here are we allowed to just enjoy the beauty of the music and the solemnity of this piece of singing. Behind Lenski a frail old lady appears and mimics in exaggerated gestures what Lenski is trying to express in the aria. I was left wondering who the hell she was. Is she Lenki’s mother or grandmother? Is she his childhood nurse? It’s anyone’s guess. I didn’t see the point of placing this character on stage. All this aside, Dunaev is really excellent and makes a believable if a tad unromantic Lenski.
Then there is the matter of the duel scene. In Pushkin the duel is outside on a very cold morning. In some of the opera productions I’ve seen, the settings display a winter landscape with more or less detail or the cold outdoors are given through clever lighting, as is, for example, the case in the New York Met Opera’s outstanding production from 2007 that starred the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky (1962-2017) as Onegin and Renée Fleming as Tatiana. In fact, this 2007 Met production is one of the best I’ve seen and beautifully sung. It is a minimalistic production but cleverly designed and you’ll wonder at the diversity of interiors and exteriors that can be expressed by using intelligent lighting and a stage covered in dry autumn leaves. In the production of the present Blu-ray, director Tcherniakov decided to have the duel in the same room as everything else. So, the duel happens inside the room that has already served as Madame Larina’s sitting room, Tatiana’s bedroom, etc., however the characters are all in thick winter or fur coats! Why? We are after all inside a room. The furniture is moved around yet again to give the setting a slightly different appearance. Onegin’s second man is portrayed as a complete idiot (and perhaps he is, as he doesn’t do his job as second properly) but to me, a little over the top. He laughs all the time extremely loud, wolfs down lots of food and eventually becomes serious but by then I’d stopped caring. When Lenski and Onegin declare they will definitely fight, Lenski picks up a rifle (not a pistol) and, in the best style of an American Western, begins shooting into the ceiling while singing and jumping up and down. Everyone else on stage moves in circles or from one end of the stage to the other, running around like headless chicken, pretending to be scared. The whole drama and poignancy of the duel scene is completely lost.
Having said all that and while I didn’t like the production, the singing is exceptionally fine. The minor cast members are excellent; the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus are magnificent throughout and conductor Alexander Vedernikov seems to successfully ignore all the antics and do full justice to Tchaikovsky’s music.
The booklet contains a detailed synopsis of the opera and the director’s notes on this Onegin production in French, English and German. Additionally there is a 26-minute bonus film on the disc, with a look at behind the scenes at the Palais Garnier Paris Opera where it was filmed, as well as interviews with the director and the main cast members.
To me, as mentioned, the production spoiled the enjoyment of one of my favourite operas. Singers and musicians are superb but to my mind, wasted in such a staging. I don’t know whether this recording is available as Audio only (in CD format, for example). If yes, that will be a much better option than the Blu-ray. You’ll probably still hear Madame Larina’s and Olga’s annoying giggling but the disruption will be minimal compared to having to watch all the other antics happening on stage. If, however, you really would like a Blu-ray of Onegin for your collection, then there are much better ones available. I can definitely recommend the New York Met Opera production that I mentioned above, with Hvorostovsky and Fleming, conducted by Gergiev and directed by Robert Carsen but there are also others such as Glyndebourne, Salzburg or the Royal Opera House.
Margarida Mota-Bull
Margarida writes more than just reviews; check it online at
www.flowingprose.com.
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