Cinéma Vérité
Pyotr IlychTchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, 24 February 2007.
As explained elsewhere, this was the first opera that I experienced in cinema projection live from the New York Meropolitan Operat in high definition audio-visual transmission. It was fitting that the opera was a Russian masterpiece. It would have gladdened the heart of the great film director and theorist Sergei Eisenstein as an illustration of his idea that through montage one achieves something greater than the sum of the parts.
Pushkin’s story of Eugene Onegin is perfectly symmetrical. In the first half, Onegin brutally rejects Tatiana Larin who has disclosed her love for him in a letter. After killing Lenski, the sweetheart of Tatiana’s sister Olga, in a duel, Onegin returns after four years’ exile to fall for Tatiana, now the Princess Gremin. She now rejects him. It is one of the greatest of operas, undoubtedly Tchaikovsky’s finest for its music, for its theme and for its tight construction. |
In concept the production is remarkably similar to that of Welsh National Opera (WNO), seen in 2004. The sets are extremely simple with bare white walls. A covering of autumn leaves represents the Larin estate, a bed and table Tatiana’s bedroom and arrangements of chairs suggest the furnishing of ballrooms in the country and in St Petersburg. These formed an adequate background for a dream cast who, in both looks and vocal skills, lived their parts.
Tatiana was performed by Renée Fleming who, in real life becoming a stately diva, miraculously transformed herself, even in close up, into a romantically besotted teenager, subtly maturing for the last Act. Vocally she out-shone Amanda Roocroft from 2004, charming though the latter’s performance was.
Fleming was superbly matched by her Onegin, sung by the heartthrob Dmitri Hvrostovsky, tall, ramrod straight and unemotional until the end, when his expression of humiliation and disbelief at his rejection, seen in close up as the curtain fell, was devastating. A third sensation was Ramón Vargas as Lenski, who looked, acted and sang the part superbly. His was the only performance that received extended applause from the cinema audience. Sergei Aleksashkin also impressed in his small but important role as Prince Gremin.
The conductor was Valery Gergiev, who gave the performance an appropriate national flavour although I did not feel the Met orchestra responded to a Russian baton quite as well as does our Welsh National. The sound quality in the cinema was good but not perfect, with sometimes distortion of the high notes.
2013
Tatiana was performed by Renée Fleming who, in real life becoming a stately diva, miraculously transformed herself, even in close up, into a romantically besotted teenager, subtly maturing for the last Act. Vocally she out-shone Amanda Roocroft from 2004, charming though the latter’s performance was.
Fleming was superbly matched by her Onegin, sung by the heartthrob Dmitri Hvrostovsky, tall, ramrod straight and unemotional until the end, when his expression of humiliation and disbelief at his rejection, seen in close up as the curtain fell, was devastating. A third sensation was Ramón Vargas as Lenski, who looked, acted and sang the part superbly. His was the only performance that received extended applause from the cinema audience. Sergei Aleksashkin also impressed in his small but important role as Prince Gremin.
The conductor was Valery Gergiev, who gave the performance an appropriate national flavour although I did not feel the Met orchestra responded to a Russian baton quite as well as does our Welsh National. The sound quality in the cinema was good but not perfect, with sometimes distortion of the high notes.
2013