Features
Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House
Gerald Finley leads a strong cast, but the staging is a little much ...
Baritone Gerald Finley, who features in the next OperaLovers podcast, starred in the recent production of Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House. Yehuda Shapiro was at the performance on 14th March.
Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin is perhaps the ideal 19th century opera for people who generally find 19th century opera uncomfortably over the top.
Based on Pushkin’s verse novella Yevgeny Onegin (to use the more authentic version of the anti-hero’s name), it was described by Tchaikovsky as ‘lyric scenes’. Rather than valiant heroes, dastardly villains and damsels in distress, it portrays recognisable people in a Russian version of the milieu we know so well from Jane Austen. The characters interact believably and the arias don’t hold up the action for long. Even Tatyana’s famous Letter Scene, the longest set piece at about a quarter of an hour, is a one-sided conversation rather than a formal soliloquy.
The story makes sense too: impressionable teenage girl (Tatyana) falls for more experienced bloke (Onegin). Bloke turns her down. Some time later they meet again and bloke decides he loves her after all – but she’s married to someone else (Prince Gremin). Yes, Onegin does manage to kill his best friend (Lensky) in a duel, the consequence of a flirtation with Lensky’s girlfriend (Olga), who happens to be Tatyana’s sister … but he is genuinely shattered by what he has done.
What a shame, then, that the late Steven Pimlott, director of this Covent Garden staging – first seen in 2006 – saw a need to make Onegin ‘theatrical’. He turned it into a wide-screen, Technicolor melodrama.
The production, revived by Elaine Kidd, overstated its case from the first moment … A scrim carried a huge depiction of a nude youth (from a painting by Flandrin). Did he represent Tatyana’s romantic fantasies – or maybe just possibly those of the enigmatic Onegin? We never found out. Although clad in scarlet rather than the usual earthy neutrals, the singing serfs of the opening scene were conventionally presented – as were Tatyana, her sister, her mother (Larina) and her nurse (Filipyevna). To Pimlott’s credit, the first-act encounters between Onegin and Tatyana were dextrously handled – he started off by discreetly, if provocatively invading her space – but elsewhere we were distracted by the on-stage presence of a real, watery pond. The doggedly vivacious Olga stamped around in it, the tired peasant women dangled their feet in it and, after overheating in the Letter Scene, Tatyana splashed about in it. (Was that ‘inspired’ by the 1994 Glyndebourne production? There she poured a bowl of water over her head.)
More dampness ensued when raindrops poured on Tatyana’s head after her rejection by Onegin, but we were spared an aquatic ballet at her ill-fated party in Act II. The guests were in garish fancy dress, including grotesque animal heads (an element…
Recent
Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House
Salome, Sacrilege and the Censor
San Francisco's new beginnings
Comments
|
sabine 2008-03-25 11:47:00 |
A little too harsh (Report) Well, I rather liked the production. It was simple but not so self-consciously modern as some productions can be. I enjoyed the seasonality of it. I rather liked the water and the ice and the peasant scenes were fun. Let's face it, those peasant songs are sentimental, so having garish idealised 'peasant' costumes worked rather well. However, I do admit that those huge paintings were a bit of a distraction. As for the singing, it was fantastic. |
|---|
