Or, as it seems to be called in the Anglosphere, Eugene Onegin. What's it known as in Germany, France etc?
I can't find any recommendations for a DVD of this opera. What I have is what comes with the Del Prado partworks series and is functional. But I would urge anybody looking for a DVD of this opera to wait until (if...?) the New York Met makes a DVD of this season's live transmissions to cinemas'. If for nothing else, I think it is essential to get Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role, especially now he is reported to be bore dof it - oh, the irony! It's a shame that ROH didn't record last season's production, also with Dima. In my opinion, the Met's Renée Fleming outshone Amanda Roocroft as Tatiana, but ROH's Rolando Villazón was a degree of magnitude better than Ramon Vargas. Both productions had their attractions, on balance, although the ROH's was, at times, gorgeous (thanks to the late Stephen Pimlott) but I would take the Met's spectacularly minimalist and un-Met-trash-like Robert Carsen production. Also, at ROH, Phillipe Jordan waggled the stick splendidly for one so young and drop-dead gorgeous, but one feels that he would not be slighted by mention that the Met had Valery Gergiev thoroughly at home in his repertoire.
This is written by Tchaikovsky. After the Tchaikovsky season on Radio 3, some newspaper johnny commented that because of Tchaik's great writing of orchestral works - symphonies and concerti - people forget his other works. I couldn't take that seriously. Call me Cheshire Girl, but surely, most people who know something about music, when prompted with "Tchaikovsky" will first say "1812" and follow up swiftly with Swan Lake/Sleeping Beauty/Nutcracker. But I will happily concede that people do forget he wrote operas. I know only this, and Pikovaya Dama (Queen of Spades). Maid of Orleans and Iolanta are known by the cognescenti. Not me. Of the two, I think Pikovaya Dama is great, whereas Evgeny Onegin is merely nearly-great.
I have played this DVD about four times now - and I went to the cinema to see the live broadcast in February, as well as seeing it live twice last year and once the year before. And each time I hear it, I love the music more and more. I'm inclined to think that it doesn't get any better than on this DVD. Gennady Rodhezensky is the conductor; I know there are people who rave about him, and I can hear why. I won't say too much about the singers, because they were terribly young then. It dates from nearly a decade ago, and they're still young now, at least the ones I'm familiar with. Suffice to say that although none reaches out and grabs me, there's none that makes me cringe. Clearly some are better than others, but why labour the point?
It struck me that this would be a perfect opera to put on the list of 'ideal for newcomers'. Funny that it doesn't tend to feature. Because it is packed full of great tunes, beautifully orchestrated. Particularly considering that none of the singers is a stand-out, it's enough to wallow and enjoy. I especially like the dance music at the start of Acts II and III (Tchaikovsky wrote amazing dance music? Who would have known!). I also adore Kuda kuda, a great great tenor show-piece aria, and Prince Gremin's is fabulous for the bass. But there's not one passage that isn't really quite beautiful. I have to confess that I often find Tatiana's letter scene drags, but I know that's me, and I also know it is vital for the dramaturgy and the character insight to have this besotted teenager angsting away in her bedroom writing this letter of love to Onegin, who receives it, and rejects her.
The story roles on; it's Tatiana's name-day party, Onegin dances with Olga, her sister, so Lensky challenges him to a duel, which of course, he accepts, adding two more to the total of Stupid Men in Opera. Onegin kills Lensky, his best friend, and wanders the world for years. He returns and attends a party given by a distant cousin, Gremin, who is now married to Tatiana. Later he tells Tatiana that he loves her, but she sends him away with a flea in his ear.
