Onegin, unlike don Giovanni, is not a colourful character. He is a rather dull, bored brat, for whom even hitting on a woman is too much trouble. Through an inheritance he has become a rich man and as such has access to the”high society”, but everything bores him and in fact he does not know himself what it is he really wants.
He dresses according to the latest fashion, the only question is whether he does it because he likes nice clothes, or because that’s the way things are supposed to be. Because he does know how things should be done.
He also shows hardly any character development over the whole course of the opera. He kills his best friend after flirting with his lover – not because he really wants to, but to teach him (and the, in his eyes horrid, countrybumpkins) a lesson – and even that leaves him unmoved. Only at the end does he “wake up” and something of a feeling enters his mind. But is it real?
Not really someone you can dedicate an entire opera to, which is why for many people the real protagonist is not Onjegin but Tatyana. If Tchaikovsky had really wanted it that way he might have named the opera “Tatyana”, but that she is a much more captivating character than the man of her dreams, is beyond any doubt.
CDs
SERGEY LEMESHEV:
One says Tatyana, one thinks Galina Vishnevskaya. The Russian soprano has created a benchmark for the role that few singers can yet match. In 1955, she recorded the role, along with all the Bolshoi greats of the time.
Her “letter scene” is perhaps the most beautiful ever, but the recording has even more to offer: how about Sergei Lemeshev as Lensky? Fingerlicking good!
Sergey Lemeshev as Lensky (his great aria & duel scene)
Valentina Petrova is a peerless Larina, unfortunately the title hero himself (Evgeny Belov) is a bit colourless. (Melodiya 1170902)
FRITZ WUNDERLICH:
In 1962, the opera was recorded live in Munich (Gala GL 100.520).
Ingebort Bremmert is too light for Tatyana, she also sounds rather sharp, but Brigitte Fassbaender makes up for a lot as Olga. But for a change, the ladies do not make the greatest impact, you buy it, of course, for the men: Hermann Prey and Fritz Wunderlich.
Prey is a very charming, gallant Onjegin, actually more like a brother than a lover, but the voice is so divinely beautiful! And about Wunderlich’s Lensky I can be very brief: ‘wunderbar’! By the way, it strikes me once again how similar Piotr Beczala sounds to him!
There is a lot of stage noise and the sound is dull with far too many bass sounds. And of course it is in German, but yes, that’s how it was done in those days. But it is a matchless document and, especially because of both singers, actually a must-see.
Duel scene from the recording (with picture!):
BERND WEIKL:
In 1974, Georg Solti recorded the opera for Decca(4174132) and that reading is still considered one of the best. In Stuart Burrows he had at his disposal the best Lensky after Wunderlich and before Beczala, and Teresa Kubiak was the very personification of Tatyana. Young, innocent, with a touch of elation at the beginning of the opera, but resigned at the end.
Under his direction, the orchestra (Orchestra of the Royal Opera House) flourished like the cornflowers in the Russian fields, making it clear why the composer considered his opus magnus to be “lyrical scenes” and not opera.
Bernd Weikl is a very seductive Onjegin, his very spicy baritone particularly sexy. Nicolai Ghiaurov is of course legendary in his role of Gremin and for me Michel Sénéchal is perhaps the best Triquet ever. Enid Hartle deserves to be especially mentioned as Filipyevna.
THOMAS ALLEN:
I want to dwell for a moment on Onjegin by Sir Thomas Allen. He has sung the role several times: both in Russian and in English. In 1988, he recorded it for DG (423 95923). Tatyana was sung by Mirella Freni – in the autumn of her career it became one of her showpieces. She is therefore more convincing as the older Tatyana than as the young girl, but there is nothing to criticise about her interpretation.
Neil Shicoff, then a splendid lyricist, was a very idiomatic Lensky, but Anne Sophie von Otter was only moderately convincing as Olga. Under James Levine, the Staatskapelle Dresden produced an unexpectedly lyrical sound, with lovely long arcs, but not devoid of a healthy sense of drama.
Anyway: it’s mainly about Thomas Allen. His reading of the title hero is particularly exciting and dramatically well grounded; it is truly fascinating to hear how Onjegin’s condescension in I turns into a shimmering passion in III. A vocal artist, no less.
It is also very interesting to see how he coaches young people at an ‘Onjegin master class’ (among his “students” is James Rutherford, among others)
DVDs
VLADIMIR REDKIN
Boris Pokrovsky is a living legend. For decades, from 1943 to 1982, he was opera director of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Even in the Netherlands, he is not unknown: in 1996, he was ‘visiting’ us with his new company, the Moscow Chamber Opera, with “Life with an Idiot” by Alfred Schnittke.
His production of Onjegin, recorded for TV at the Bolshoi in Moscow in 2000(Arthaus Musik 107 213) originally dates from 1944. It is, of course, a classic, complete with all the trimmings. Sumptuous costumes, true-to-life sets, everything as it ‘should’ be.
As soon as the stage curtain opens, the first ‘open curtain’ is a fact. People love it. And they are right: it is indeed so very beautiful! Of course, you don’t get to see it like that anymore. Think Zeffirelli, but really authentic, without a single liberty being taken. You have to have seen it at least once, just to know how it was originally intended.
The unknown singers are all just fine, but the close-ups are a bit laughable. Of course, it is not a production to be shown on TV, you have to actually see it in the opera house. There is no chance of that, though: Boris Pokrovsky’s production has been replaced by a new production by Dmitri Tcherniakov after more than 60 years of faithful service. Buy the DVD and muse on the ‘good old days’, because they really aren’t coming back.
https://www.operaonvideo.com/eugene-onegin-moscow-2000-ermler-gavrilova-redkin-baskov-martirosyan/
MARIUSZ KWIECIEN:
I started on Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production(Bel Air BAC046) with a huge dose of scepticism. His decision to replace Boris Pokrovsky’s old legendary production was very brave, because Muscovites (and not only Muscovites) were so very attached to it. Besides: you have to be really sure of yourself to dare to replace a LEGEND. On top of that, from the entire cast – apart from Kocherga and Kwiecien – I did not know any of the performers.
I quickly changed my mind, because from the start I was on the edge of my seat. The staging, costumes, stage design, sets and props – everything is right, even if it is not as it is in a typical ‘Onegin’. The entire first and second acts take place in the same space: the dining room in Larina’s house, with a long table and chairs prominently displayed. The same table and chairs also recur in III, but in a much richer ambience.
It is incredibly difficult to explain the whole directorial concept in a few words, you have to believe me that it is extremely fascinating and extremely exciting. Very intelligent too.
Tatyana is portrayed by Tatiana Monogarova in a very convincing way. She is pale, thin and slightly autistic, locked in her own mind. The outside world scares her as she tries to hide from it.
Olga(Margerita Mamsirova) is just a flirt and from the start she challenged Onegin. She is more than a little tired of her poet- boyfriend’s sighs. and she is not wrong!
Lensky is sung by a good, though not exeptional, Andrey Dunaev. He is a bit stupid, pushy and jealous and thus the real instigator of all evil happenings.
Larina (an insanely good singing and acting Makvala Kasrashvili) also gets more attention than usual. The moment when, thinking back to her childhood, she downs a drink and has a little cry is very touching. But she soon recovers and everything stays the same.
Mariusz Kwiecien (Onegin) is indeed irresistible. Or let me rephrase it: he portrays such a very bored and self-important arsehole (sorry for the word!). And he actually stays that way until the end. Utterly convincing!
Frantically he tries to belong to the ‘high society’, where he is not really accepted. Even his sudden passionate love for Tatyana feels unreal. On his knees, he offers her a bunch of red roses and when she refuses to run away with him, he tries to rape her.
Dignified, Tatyana walks off the stage on her husband’s arm on which Onjegin pulls out a pistol, but we are spared the suicide, because, of course!, without witnesses by his standards there is no use for it..
Trailer:
DMITRY HVOROSTOVSKY
And then there is Robert Carsen’s production for the Metropolitan Opera, recorded in February 2007(Decca 0743298). I am a huge Carsen-adept and love almost everything he does. So too this Onjegin
His staging is very realistic and he follows the libretto accurately. In the first act, the stage is strewn with autumn leaves, but everything else is basically bare and there is almost no scenery. A bed for the ‘letter scene’, otherwise some chairs in the second and third acts. At the duel, the stage is completely empty.
It is not distracting. On the contrary. The costumes are really beautiful, but especially in the first act they remind me more of English Jane Austen film adaptations than of the Russian countryside. It is not really disturbing, the eye wants something too, but Renée Fleming is too glamorous for a peasant trio, making her switch to a proud princess less impressive.
Onjegin (Dmitri Hvorostovsky) is mainly a dandy here, very concerned with his, good, looks. Well, Dima is an extremely attractive singer in all aspects, but in his confrontation scene with Tatyana, he is more reminiscent of daddy Germont than of Onjegin.
Ramón Vargas is one of the best lyric tenors in 2007, but Lensky he is not! He really does his best, he also looks like a real poet, but this role needs to be a bit more languorous.
As usual, Carsen’s character direction is truly unsurpassed and even Fleming seems to thaw out at times. Unfortunately, her Russian is totally unintelligible.
Fleming and Hvorostovsky in the final scene of the opera:
Basia con fuoco 