The Catskill Chronicle

Review by Barry Plaxen

LOCH SHELDRAKE, NY (October 15, 2013) – Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel, “Eugene Onegin” was adapted into lyrical scenes by the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1879. The libretto by his brother Modest and Konstantin Shilovsky is based on Tchaikovsky’s initial setting of the scenes and retains some of the poetry in Puskin’s story of a selfish protagonist who comes to regret his supercilious rejection of the heroine’s love and his outlandish behavior that led to a duel with his best friend and his friend’s death.

The story deals with Onegin’s perceptions of rural and cosmopolitan Russian life, but lacks clarity due to the librettists’ concentration on the unrequited love Titania has for Onegin. In a way, it is similar to “La Boheme” in that the scenes are episodic with no dramatic connections from one to another, affording the viewer an opportunity to experience an opera with deep concentration upon the music. Though the beautiful music is not as lyrical, expansive, dramatic or as moving as Puccini’s for Boheme, like Boheme the raison d’etre for viewing the opera lies in listening to the singing of the three leads.

The Met’s new production was “livecast” on October 5 at Sullivan County Community College, and was received with “mixed” response from the audience. Those who had seen the previous Met production enjoyed this new version, but not as much as those who had not seen the previous production, for which there were no sets, just costumes and props, so the concentration on that production, unlike the new one, focused on the talents of the singers. This new production, complete with set, focused on the opera itself, which only pointed out it’s dramatic weaknesses.

Obviously, no matter what the production, viewing this dramatically faulty opera always comes down to relying on the three leads. Anna Netrebko as Tatiana was superb in her dramatization of an innocent, upper class country girl, and later, as a mature, urban “princess.” Just viewing her face and body movements let you know who she was and what she was thinking. As superb as her acting was, her singing, especially of her famous letter aria, was as outstanding, if not more-so, than her acting. Equally as effective was Marius Kwiecien’s performance in the title role. Stealing the show, due to his deeply emotional rendering of the ”wronged party,” was tenor Piotr Beczala as Lenski, friend of Onegin and suitor to Titania’s sister, Olga.

The production was conducted by Valery Gergiev, who has a most interesting technique, not the usual hand, finger and arm movements. As if he were doing some sort of healing modality, like Reiki or similar, he seemed to manipulate energy rather that direct an orchestra. But it worked. As usual with the Met, both the orchestra and chorus were of the highest possible order.

Up next in the series is Shostakovich’s “The Nose” on October 26. For information: 845-434-5750, ext. 4372.