Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Eugene Onegin - Lyrical scenes in 3 acts (1879)
Helene Schneiderman - Larina; Kristine Opolais - Tatyana; Lena Belkina -
Olga; Margarita Nekrasova - Filipyevna; Artur Ruciński - Eugene Onegin;
Dmitry Korchak - Lensky; Günther Groissböck - Prince Gremin
Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana y Orquestra de la Comunitat
Valencia/Omer Meir Wellber
rec. Palau de les Arts "Reina Sofia", Valencia, Spain, 8-11 February
2011
Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround
Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i; Region ABC
Subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and
Japanese
Blu-ray Video - Reviewed in surround.
C MAJOR BLU-RAY 712504 [150.00]
Watching this disc provoked a range of reactions: from the 'Wow!'
spoken aloud to myself after Act One, irritation over the obscure disc menu
system that caused several minutes delay in starting Act Two, disappointment
at the loss of grandeur in the Act Three Polonaise and finally a
grudging admission that this spectacular re-imagining of Tchaikovsky's great
opera probably is 'consequent', that is, it does hang together in
directorial terms.
To start with the technical trivia: there is once again music over
the top level menu and once one has negotiated via the player remote control
to the second level, the music returns. Typically thoughtless authoring
derived from the world of pop-video I guess. The detailed menu system itself
is non-existent until one guesses to select it via the remote; thereafter it
can be used to select sound format and subtitle language. The subtitles
themselves are thoughtfully moved around the screen on the few occasions
when they would otherwise have obscured the action, proving that
intelligence does exist in the authoring department - thank you.
The picture is excellent with completely unobtrusive camerawork
nearly always giving the view one wants. The sound is clear and well
balanced between stage and pit but is not expansive enough so Tchaikovsky's
great moments are a bit restrained. The rear channels might as well have
been off, even the audience applause comes from the front triplet of
speakers. The booklet has notes about Tchaikovsky and his opera, plus a
little about this production and a very short synopsis of the plot.
Musically this is well sung by everyone, but the roles of Tatyana,
Olga and Onegin seemed to me to be quite outstandingly well performed.
Kristine Opolais is absolutely wonderful, particularly in the Letter Scene
and the final duet with Onegin. Both Opolais and Belkina look young enough
to be convincing teenage sisters in Act One. Artur Ruciński is
youthfully arrogant in Act One and suitably distraught at the end of Act
Three. Make no mistake, this is a superb cast. The orchestra members are
enthusiastic but not at their finest. It may have been an artefact of the
pit microphone placement or perhaps they were under-strength on the night.
In other recordings they have sounded much better. The conductor Omer Meir
Wellber paces this wonderful score well but I had hoped for more passion as
heard on, for example, Levine's Dresden recording from Deutsche Grammophon.
Mariusz Treliński's stage direction lulls one into acceptance
in Act 1 with its stylised trees and flowers and a nice contrast between the
country folk and townspeople. The settings are spare and focus mostly on the
essentials of the plot. I use the word 'lulls' advisedly because Polish
director Treliński has what the Germans call a konzept. To this
end he introduces a new character, the elderly Eugene Onegin, listed in the
booklet as "O***", who does not sing or speak but whose white-coated and
white-headed presence is ubiquitous from before the music starts to the
final curtain. In this concept, as described at www.culture.pl "Onegin is
imprisoned in a past where he suffered defeat, a past which he must
incessantly ponder and which he cannot escape." The entire plot is his
increasingly anguished recollections and as such it takes on a dreamlike,
starkly coloured and contrasted appearance, with geometrical shapes and
increasingly stylised movements. The great Letter Scene is played as
a slow moving tableau between Tatyana and "O***". In Act 2 Tatyana is seen
dancing with "O" masked as a wolf; many of the dancers are so masked, women
as well as men. This reaches a peak in Act 3 when the Polonaise is quite
nightmarish and worlds away from a grand ball at a fashionable house in St
Petersburg. It is more akin to an eccentric, modern fashion show when the
'dancers' process like manikins along the flat top of the stalls barrier
that separates the orchestra pit from the front seats, using it as a
catwalk. This area is often used: from the very beginning to allow the
elderly Onegin to enter the scene; to stage the confrontation between Lensky
and Onegin, and used again at the end of the opera for Tatyana's devastating
dismissal of the young Onegin - while centre-stage, the elderly Onegin
collapses, cast down by sinister black figures. The concept is at times
erotically charged as in a red-lit Letter Scene, grimly funereal in the
duel, and absolutely dark during the final duet when a formally black-suited
Onegin confronts a Tatyana in a sedate but startlingly pink satin dress.
This is no way to be introduced to Tchaikovsky's opera; for that a
more easily understood staging should be used, or even the famous Petr Weigl
film using Solti and Covent Garden forces as a sound-track (which is
available on a Decca DVD). However, if you are an experienced opera-goer and
like a challenge, this spectacular and thought-provoking Blu-ray is worth
your money.
Dave Billinge
A beautifully sung performance but a challengingly re-imagined staging.
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