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| Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin - Raimonds Bramanis (Lensky) (Photo: Agnese Zeltina (c) Latvian National Opera and Ballet) |
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on June 10 2017
Star rating:
A modern dress production which radically updates the opera
The curtain rose at Riga Opera House on a strikingly designed modern scene, all perspex and metal with stylised trees. Four women in modern, yet Russian-inflected dress were tussling over piles of clothes, watched at a distance by an older man. It was clear that one of the older women was profoundly upset. Eventually the chorus appeared, dressed in grey cassock-like garments. It is not clear who they are, they collect up the strewn garments and draw the four women into a dance.
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| Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin - Janis Apeinis (Onegin) (Photo: Agnese Zeltina (c) Latvian National Opera and Ballet) |
Onegin was sung by Janis Apeinis, Tatyana by Maija Kovalevska, Lensky by Raimonds Bramanis, Olga by Irina Shishkova, Larina by Kristine Zadovska, Filippyevna by Andzella Goba, Gremin by Romans Polisadovs and Triquet by Andris Kipluks. The conductor was Ainars Rubikis who will become Music Director of the Komische Opera in Berlin in 2018.
Most successful productions of Tchaikovsky's lyrical scenes have a very clear sense of place, it is obvious who the characters are. This does not need the opera to be set in the period of the original Pushkin story, but it helps. (Tchaikovsky said in one of his letters, 'the staging does not have to be lavish but it music be strictly in keeping with the period'). By the end of the first act of this production, I still had no clear idea who these people were. Rezija Kalnina seemed to have created the family from hell as all four women seemed desperate for Tatyana to wed Onegin, no wonder he was put off. The act was full of unusual elements of dramaturgy which jarred with Tchaikovsky's original concept, for example Olga made an appearance at the end of Act One and made contact with Onegin.
Frustrated, I read the synopsis in the first interval. This seemed to be a free fantasia on characters based on Pushkin, take this description of part of the action in the fourth scene:
'Onegin hears people gossiping about him and Tatyana; he decides to put an end to it and take revenge on his friend, Vladimir Lensky, for putting him in this awkward situation. He decides to do something to open Lensky's eyes and show him just what kind of woman Olga is. But Lensky loses all self-control in his jealousy and wants to attack Olga, but Onegin tries to stop him. The fiendish pimp Triquet arrives and pretends to auction Tatyana off in a fiancée market'.
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