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SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL OPERA REVIEW
Director/Costumes: Michal Znaniecki
Sets: Luigi Scoglio
Lighting: Bogumil Palewicz
Chorus: Miguel Martínez
Choreography: Diana Theocharidis
Cast:
Larina: Susanna Moncayo / Claudia Casasco
Tatiana: Magdalena Nowacka / Daniela Tabernig
Olga: Mónica Sardi / Guadalupe Barrientos
Filippyevna: Elisabeth Canis / Matilde Isnardi
Eugene Onegin: Marcin Bronikowski / Luciano Garay
Lensky: Darío Schmunck / Pedro Espinoza
Prince Gremin: Ariel Cazes / Emiliano Bulacios
Zaretski: Oreste Chlopecki / Juan Pablo Labourdette
Triquet: Carlos Bengolea
Captain: Sergio Spina / Arnaldo Quiroga
L-R Marcin Bronikowski (Onegin), Ariel Cazes (Gremin)
and
Magdalena Nowacka (Tatiana)
Like it did last year the Teatro Argentino has opened its 2011
season - and the local season as a whole - with a Russian opera,
this time Tchaikovsky's under-performed (in these parts at least)
masterpiece, Eugene Onegin. The
production, a co-production with the Opera Krakowska, Teatr Wielki
Poznan and the Bilbao Association of Friends of the Opera, comes
with a strong Eastern European pedigree with the director Michal
Znaniecki, the lighting designer Bogumil Palewicz, and the two
principal protagonists, Magdalena Nowacka and Marcin Bronikowski,
all of Polish origin.
The striking scenery is fairly minimal - but not minimalist - and
a mix of the modern and more traditional with for example, the
Eastern style garden of Casa Larina contrasting with the ice
strewn lake where the duel tales place. But the greatest impact is
from the lighting, with whites and blues and silvers and blacks
suggestive of a stark opulence and sharply contrasting the various
emotions. Water too is a key element, with snow falling in one
scene, an icy setting for the duel, and somewhat bizarrely -
perhaps reflective of the warming of Onegin's heart to Tatiana? -
a shallow floor of water in the palace settings of the last act,
into which Onegin sinks on his knees in his final despair.
This scenic intensity was complemented by an equally powerful
cast, with both Magdalena Nowacka as Tatiana and Marcin
Bronikowski as Onegin outstanding - Nowacka with firm voice and
Bronikowski, perhaps a little more staid than one may expect for a
dandy but more than making up with the breadth of colour.
Dario Schmunk was a romantic
Lensky and Mónica Sardi played Olga to perfection, both vocally
and in her movements, and Ariel Cazes was a fine wheelchair-bound
Gremin. Carlos Bengolea was a decadent Triquet and Oreste
Chlopecki was good as Zarestski.
The orchestra was under Stefan Lano and apart from a shaky moment
early in the opening prelude, played with precision to give a well
rounded and expressive reading.
Jonathan Spencer Jones
Picture Courtesy of Teatro Argentino, La Plata