Richterplus - classical music comment: April 2017

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin

Anna Netrebko, Tatiana
Petter Mattei, Onegin
Alexey Dolgov, Lenski

Alexey Dolgov sings the role of Lenski, and Robin Ticciati conducts. - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf

Elena Maximova, Olga Stefan Kocan, Gremin

Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra
Robin Ticciati, conductor

22 April 2017, The Metropolitan Opera New York, live cinema broadcast
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Anna Netrebko as Tatiana

One of the advantages of the Met's live broadcasts is having Renee Fleming speak with the cast, often seconds after having finished an Act. Poor conductor Robin Ticciati was waylaid in his room when he clearly just wanted to get up to his orchestra for Act III (he arrived late).

This being Tchaikovsky's famous opera of the even more famous Pushkin novel, various Russian singers were asked the obvious question: explain for a worldwide audience what Onegin means to you. Apart from its ubiquity on the school curriculum, none left us any the wiser.

Similarly, we had to take the emotional intensity of the opera's plot on faith in this performance much of the time. Why does Onegin stir such volcanic feelings in Tatiana? Why does Onegin change his mind so dramatically in Act III? Ill health had removed Dmitri Hvorostovsky from the line-up for this performance alongside Anna Netrebko. Taking his place was Peter Mattei, sure of voice but a stolid acting presence. Perhaps this was the prime reason why the emotional and dramatic logic of the evening was not always clear.

Alexey Dolgov's Lenski was on surer ground, and Netrebko's Tatiana a brilliant thing. The letter scene was magnificently paced, and at its conclusion overwhelming, Netrebko's voice throwing thunderbolts out into the house.

So, an evening filled with very fine singing, but with more uneven acting. The setting was the usual Met traditional and true to the original. Although was that a conceptual landscape at the end? The palace setting for the ball combined with the frozen lake from the duel. What will the upper east side say?

Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Štefan Kocán, Alexey Dolgov, Elena Maximova - See more at: https://www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/met-opera-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin#sthash.CVaST5DU.dpuf

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Sunday 30 April 2017

Anna Netrebko throwing thunderbolts