The Cheat Sheet: "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky.
Eugene Onegin in a nutshell: Simple farm girl has mega crush on a sophisticated and arrogant aristocrat (sort of a Russian Mr. Darcy), he's not into it, thinks he's too young and hot to be settling down. (Subplot: he kills his best mate in a duel.) She eventually marries a Prince (win!), gets an awesome stylist, Russian Mr. Darcy shows up: "*Gasp!* I made a huge mistake! I love you!" She says, "That's great and I love you too but this is all too little, wayyyy too late. "
I cry. The end.
This is one of those operas that for some reason, despite the snowy 19th century Russian landscape and the duelling and Princes doing the quadrille (or polonaise, I forget which), is incredibly relatable - more so, in my mind, that most operas. There's the slightly annoying attention-seeking younger sister Olga (who doesn't have one of those?) The humiliation that our heroine, Tatiana, feels at Onegin's rejection immediately takes us back to that Year 9 dance where we suffered much the same humiliation. Onegin's BFF Lensky is actually a sensitive and gentle soul but is so stubbornly proud that he feels he has no choice but to challenge Onegin to the fatal duel - the modern day equivalent of defriending on Facebook. And as for Onegin himself, oh the regret! That chance of happiness that he stupidly turned down and the pain he feels now! Who else has been there?
Take all of these powerful, character-driven elements, add utterly divine music with themes that haunt you on your drive home and now throw in three stunners: Anna Netrebko (Tatiana), Mariusz Kwiecien (Onegin) and Piotr Beczala (Lensky) and as far as I'm concerned, the Metropolitan Opera has a winner. Quite frankly, they had me at the poster (see above). NY Times found the sets drab and dull, The New Yorker thought spatially remote. I thought they were evocative, and the costumes were so gorgeous I wanted to run out and buy a red velvet dress right now. Furthermore, I thought the performances of the three leads were all fabulous (and easy on the eyes, in this increasingly looks-obsessed profession.)
In fact I wondered if I had attended a different performance than that of the critics...well, of course, I did. I watched via satellite from a tiny, 20-seat cinema in a small town in rural New Zealand, five weeks after the actual opening night. I wasn't there physically but I was most certainly there emotionally, watching every flicker on Netrebko's zoomed-in face. Opera Brittania said it was the performance they'd been waiting for. Tatiana is a new role for the seemingly unstoppable Netrebko, who's focus has up til now been the bel canto repertoire, "-inas" and a string of Mimis. She's now moving into heavier stuff with the release of her new Verdi album (the cover of which is really weirdly airbrushed, but whatever).
This is without a doubt one of my top five operas ever written, which is not an easy thing for an opera-lover to say. For me it's just one of those things I never get sick of seeing or hearing.
FIRST TIME AT ONEGIN?: What You Need To Know
- Great news! It's only about 2 hours 40 minutes long, so even with an interval, you're going to be home by 11pm.
- It's based on the novel of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, but wait for it, he wrote it in iambic tetrameter! It sounds like this: da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM (that's four DUMS). So yes, the Onegin story is a very long, super famous poem. As well as the opera version, there have been ballets, a play and at last count, 7 films of Onegin, the most recent starring Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler.
- A crucial bit in the opera is called "Tatiana's Letter Scene" and you'll notice the critics around you sitting upright with their pencils poised. It's about 14 minutes long and our heroine is on stage, alone, writing a letter to Onegin that she can't seem to get right and keeps ripping up. It's a massive dramatic commitment from the soprano singing Tatiana and at the end of it we all feel like taking a nap because it was just so emotionally draining.
- Also very important is Lensky's aria "Kuda kuda". He sings it while waiting for Onegin to show up for their scheduled duel. It's divinely beautiful and all young tenors want to sing it immediately so they can pick up chicks.
- An amazing piece of life imitating art: Tchaikovsky actually received a letter (well, quite a few actually), not unlike Tatiana's impassioned one, from a female student. However, unlike mean old heart-crushing Onegin, Tchaikovsky decided to be a gentleman and marry the girl. Big mistake. Tchaikovsky was gay and the marriage lasted about as long as Kim Kardashian's (2nd) one. Except of course in those days divorce was out of the question.
If you have missed the boat to see the most recent Met broadcast of Onegin, fear not. There is a DVD available of the 2007 production starring Renee Fleming as Tatiana (worth checking out your local library) and many wonderful recordings not to mention the glory that is Youtube. Go on, cry along with me.
Posted by Georgia Jamieson Emms
Eugene Onegin in a nutshell: Simple farm girl has mega crush on a sophisticated and arrogant aristocrat (sort of a Russian Mr. Darcy), he's not into it, thinks he's too young and hot to be settling down. (Subplot: he kills his best mate in a duel.) She eventually marries a Prince (win!), gets an awesome stylist, Russian Mr. Darcy shows up: "*Gasp!* I made a huge mistake! I love you!" She says, "That's great and I love you too but this is all too little, wayyyy too late. "
I cry. The end.
This is one of those operas that for some reason, despite the snowy 19th century Russian landscape and the duelling and Princes doing the quadrille (or polonaise, I forget which), is incredibly relatable - more so, in my mind, that most operas. There's the slightly annoying attention-seeking younger sister Olga (who doesn't have one of those?) The humiliation that our heroine, Tatiana, feels at Onegin's rejection immediately takes us back to that Year 9 dance where we suffered much the same humiliation. Onegin's BFF Lensky is actually a sensitive and gentle soul but is so stubbornly proud that he feels he has no choice but to challenge Onegin to the fatal duel - the modern day equivalent of defriending on Facebook. And as for Onegin himself, oh the regret! That chance of happiness that he stupidly turned down and the pain he feels now! Who else has been there?
Take all of these powerful, character-driven elements, add utterly divine music with themes that haunt you on your drive home and now throw in three stunners: Anna Netrebko (Tatiana), Mariusz Kwiecien (Onegin) and Piotr Beczala (Lensky) and as far as I'm concerned, the Metropolitan Opera has a winner. Quite frankly, they had me at the poster (see above). NY Times found the sets drab and dull, The New Yorker thought spatially remote. I thought they were evocative, and the costumes were so gorgeous I wanted to run out and buy a red velvet dress right now. Furthermore, I thought the performances of the three leads were all fabulous (and easy on the eyes, in this increasingly looks-obsessed profession.)
In fact I wondered if I had attended a different performance than that of the critics...well, of course, I did. I watched via satellite from a tiny, 20-seat cinema in a small town in rural New Zealand, five weeks after the actual opening night. I wasn't there physically but I was most certainly there emotionally, watching every flicker on Netrebko's zoomed-in face. Opera Brittania said it was the performance they'd been waiting for. Tatiana is a new role for the seemingly unstoppable Netrebko, who's focus has up til now been the bel canto repertoire, "-inas" and a string of Mimis. She's now moving into heavier stuff with the release of her new Verdi album (the cover of which is really weirdly airbrushed, but whatever).
This is without a doubt one of my top five operas ever written, which is not an easy thing for an opera-lover to say. For me it's just one of those things I never get sick of seeing or hearing.
FIRST TIME AT ONEGIN?: What You Need To Know
- Great news! It's only about 2 hours 40 minutes long, so even with an interval, you're going to be home by 11pm.
- It's based on the novel of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, but wait for it, he wrote it in iambic tetrameter! It sounds like this: da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM (that's four DUMS). So yes, the Onegin story is a very long, super famous poem. As well as the opera version, there have been ballets, a play and at last count, 7 films of Onegin, the most recent starring Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler.
- A crucial bit in the opera is called "Tatiana's Letter Scene" and you'll notice the critics around you sitting upright with their pencils poised. It's about 14 minutes long and our heroine is on stage, alone, writing a letter to Onegin that she can't seem to get right and keeps ripping up. It's a massive dramatic commitment from the soprano singing Tatiana and at the end of it we all feel like taking a nap because it was just so emotionally draining.
- Also very important is Lensky's aria "Kuda kuda". He sings it while waiting for Onegin to show up for their scheduled duel. It's divinely beautiful and all young tenors want to sing it immediately so they can pick up chicks.
- An amazing piece of life imitating art: Tchaikovsky actually received a letter (well, quite a few actually), not unlike Tatiana's impassioned one, from a female student. However, unlike mean old heart-crushing Onegin, Tchaikovsky decided to be a gentleman and marry the girl. Big mistake. Tchaikovsky was gay and the marriage lasted about as long as Kim Kardashian's (2nd) one. Except of course in those days divorce was out of the question.
If you have missed the boat to see the most recent Met broadcast of Onegin, fear not. There is a DVD available of the 2007 production starring Renee Fleming as Tatiana (worth checking out your local library) and many wonderful recordings not to mention the glory that is Youtube. Go on, cry along with me.
Posted by Georgia Jamieson Emms