BWW Reviews: An Unexpected Star Turn at the Met's New EUGENE ONEGIN

The Metropolitan Opera may have chosen soprano Anna Netrebko to add star-power to its new season's opening production of Tchaikovsky's EUGENE ONEGIN, but she was upstaged, figuratively speaking at least, by the thrilling performance of Polish tenor Piotr Beczala, as the poet Lenski.

An ardent and sensitive soul

At Saturday evening's performance, the last of the season conducted by Valery Gergiev, Beczala's characterization was an unexpected, but not unsurprising, high point. By turns ardent and sensitive, petulant and resigned, the bright-voiced tenor, who made such a memorable impression as the Duke of Mantua in last season's Rat-Pack RIGOLETTO, was riveting, as a man facing his fatal destiny in a duel with the title character (baritone Mariusz Kwiecien). It was as if the opera should have been called LENSKI--except, of course, he dies well before the ending. (Mezzo-soprano Oksana Volkova, who gave little to recommend as Maddalena in the same RIGOLETTO last season, was quite strong as Olga, Tatiana's sister and the catalyst for the Lenski-Onegin duel.)

Netrebko's exciting finale

That's not to say that Netrebko didn't do some fine singing, because she did. In particular, she was exciting in the opera's finale, where she let loose with the passion I had been waiting to hear, as Tatiana bid farewell to Onegin. If she had been as tuned into the character earlier on, perhaps the production would have been more satisfying. As it was, Netrebko's sedate turn on the most famous aria from the opera, the Letter Scene, just sat there. Thus, it was no surprise when the worldly neighbor Onegin turned down her advances--which is crucial to setting up the rest of the opera.

As for Kwiecien, he was a decidedly uncharismatic Onegin--not one who would have turned up the flames of infatuation for the young Tatiana. Onegin seems to live in his own world, not caring much for the people who pass through his life, except for Lenski, whom he ultimately kills. Then Tatiana enters and changes the game for him. But without a hint of what makes the man so appealing to Tatiana--as Dmitri Hvorostovsky did at the Met back in 2007, for example--the action doesn't make much sense. (Not that love always does...)

Departure of the director

Maybe it was the production that did these two singers in. It had some notorious problems, including the early departure of its shepherd, director Deborah Warner, for unplanned surgery and her replacement by actress-director Fiona Shaw, who had to leave for another obligation before the opening.

The Met had its reasons, I suppose, for supplanting its interesting and often visually arresting Robert Carsen production--though they certainly hadn't gotten much mileage out of it--but this one was a non-starter. The Larin home, designed by Tom Pye (with muted costumes by Chloe Obolensky) in this coproduction with the English National Opera, was drab as dust, and the last act, in Prince Gremin palace, was merely serviceable (as was a gravelly Alexei Tanovitski as Gremin). Aside from the evocative videos that enlivened the curtain between acts, by Ian William Galloway and Finn Ross, only the duel at the end of the second act was visually arresting.

In the right hands, there is much to love musically in this opera. The wonderful Met Orchestra was in fine form with Gergiev, who led a full-throttled account of the gorgeous, romantic Tchaikovsky score.

A final note

By this time in the run, the protests that greeted the opening night audience had passed, though not the issues they raised: The anti-gay laws passed last summer by Russian President Vladimir Putin remain in place. As the 18th century statesman Edmund Burke once said, "The only thing necessary for evil to exist is for good people to remain silent."

Photo: Anna Netrebko as Tatiana, Oksana Volkova as Olga, Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin, Piotr Beczala as Lenski.
Photo credit: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

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