Young Artists performance of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at Opera Holland Park

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin - Lucy Anderson, Rory Musgrave
Opera Holland Park Young Artists Performance (Photo Alastair Muir)

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin; Lucy Anderson, Rory Musgrave, Jack Roberts, Anna Elizabeth Cooper, Emily Hodkinson, Jane Mondari, Henry Grant Kerswell, director: Julia Burbach/Emma Black, City of London Sinfonia,  conductor: Hannah von Wiehler; Young Artists Performance at Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 13 June 2022

Originally planned for 2020, this year's cohort of Young Artists show their mettle in a wonderfully finished and profoundly moving account of Tchaikovsky's lyric scenes

For Opera Holland Park's Young Artists Performance this year, Julia Burbach's production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin [see my review] returned on 13 June 2022 with Emma Black directing the Young Artists with Lucy Anderson as Tatyana, Rory Musgrave as Onegin, Jack Roberts as Lensky, Anna Elizabeth Cooper as Olga, Emily Hodkinson as Madame Larina, Jane Monari as Filippyevna, Henry Grant Kerswell as Prince Gremin and Phillip Costovski as Triquet. Hannah von Wiehler conducted the City of London Sinfonia.

The basic outlines of Burbach's production were unchanged, and seeing it again it became clearer that the first half (the four scenes ending with Madame Larina's party) are very much seen through Tatyana's eyes, the silent appearances of both Onegin and her friends testify to the young woman's interior life. For the second half we experience things through Onegin's eyes as he obsessively re-lives the duel and fantasises over reconciliation with Tatyana.

Rory Musgrave made a robust, even rough-hewn Onegin bring a striking energy to his performance which contrasted with the restrained elegance of the Larina household, making you understand why Lucy Anderson's bookish Tatyana might be attracted to an Onegin who was rather more Heathcliffe than Mr Darcy (the programme book highlights the links between Pushkin and Jane Austen's novel). Musgrave was superb in the third scene where he put Anderson's Tatyana down without a thought. This was certainly a moment when Tatyana's 'how humiliating' clearly was true. Musgrave's Onegin was poetic enough to make his interior doubts about his behaviour in the fourth scene believable, yet he remained very much rough round the edges. This made his reaction to the duel all the more intense and this built to an near incandescent final scene.

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin - Jack Roberts, Anna Elizabeth Cooper - Opera Holland Park Young Artists Performance (Photo Alastair Muir)

Lucy Anderson's portrayal of Tatyana was wonderfully consummate and complete. In the first half she was all dreamy bookishness. Not naive, this Tatyana was simply more involved in her interior world than the exterior and it took someone as robust as Onegin to break through. Her letter scene was finely done and very moving. Anderson has quite a vibrant voice, more than equal to the demands of this role, yet in this scene she also managed to remain a young girl (we need to remember that Tatyana is supposed to be only 18), and her intense reactions in the third scene were finely judged. When we saw her again, as Princess Gremin, Anderson was transformed and we really believed in this poised and controlled figure, whose manipulation of Onegin in their duet was beautifully done yet with a strong undertow of emotion. This was a finely sung and finely acted performance, and I cannot wait to see what Anderson does next.

Jack Roberts brought a naivety and a sense of the clean-cut to Lensky. His vibrant voice has a lovely lyric line to it which made an ideal sound-world for this role. Yet, even in the first scene, there were disturbing edges. It was noticeable that Lensky's poetic rhapsodising was sung not to Anna Elizabeth Cooper's Olga but to thin air. Roberts' Lensky was in love with his idea of Olga rather than the real thing, and of course this came crashing down in the fourth scene when Robert's showed the way Lensky's control breaks. In the duel scene, Roberts' gave a moving and very musical account of the aria, with a superb sense of line, and the crucial duet had a terrible poignancy to it.

Anna Elizabeth Cooper was a delightful Olga, a real live wire and something of a flirt. Cooper made Olga highly active and restless, and there was a vibrancy and lightness to her singing which made you believe that she was young. Cooper and Roberts made a complementary pairing, and you sensed they were not in it for the long haul.

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin - Emily Hodkinson - Opera Holland Park Young Artists Performance (Photo Alastair Muir)

It is amazing what difference a wig and cap can make. Having met Emily Hodkinson at a Young Artists event earlier in the year I was very struck by how different her Madame Larina was from the real Emily. This Larina was very poised and centred, cool almost and she had a Jane Austen-esque sense of floating through life unaware of the little dramas eddying round her. She was complemented by Jane Monari's centred and down to earth Filippyevna. Monari managed the difficult task of giving Filippyevna gravitas without doing self-consciously 'old' and her moments with Anderson's Tatyana before and after the letter scene were lovely.

Henry Grant Kerswell was a very passionate Gremin. We are used to Gremin being the elder statesman, yet his is the only happy ending in the opera. This Gremin was actively in love, and perhaps a bit embarrassed at having admitted it to his kinsman, but it gave Gremin's aria a sense of active purpose. Philip Costovski was a delightful Triquet, charming in his aria, whilst Konrad Jaromin repeated his hyperactive Zaretsky and fierce Captain from the main cast.

As ever, the chorus was on good form and they are highly active in this production. In the pit, conductor Hanna von Wiehler brought a vivid sense of energy to the performance. Her speeds were not too fast, yet she and the orchestra conveyed a sense of energy and impulse. This was young person's music, lithe and lively, and full of lovely detail. The City of London Sinfonia clearly responded to Von Wiehler's direction and I enjoyed the results greatly. Von Wiehler also managed her traffic policeman duties well, co-ordinating stage, pit and fore-stage.

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin - Rory Musgrave - Opera Holland Park Young Artists Performance (Photo Alastair Muir)

This was a finely judged performance and there was little sense of these being Young Artists, this was fully finished and profoundly moving.

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