United Kingdom Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Northern Ireland Opera / Dominic Limburg (conductor). Grand Opera House, Belfast, 17.9.2024. (RB)
Production:
Director – Cameron Menzies
Set designer and Video director – Niall McKeever
Costume designer – Gillian Lennox
Lighting designer – Kevin Treacy
Video designer – Neil O’Driscoll
Movement director – Jennifer Rooney
Cast:
Eugene Onegin – Yuriy Yurchuk
Tatyana – Mary McCabe
Lensky – Norman Reinhardt
lga – Sarah Richmond
Madame Larina – Carolyn Dobbin
Filipevna – Jenny Bourke
Monsieur Triquet – Aaron O’Hare
Prince Gremin – Niall Anderson
A Captain – Matthew Jeffrey
Zaretsky – Seamus Brady
Tatyana (Older) – Anne Flanagan
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is a set of seven lyrical scenes which depict dramatic events in the lives of two couples. There is no continuous plot development but rather a depiction of key incidents which profoundly affect the four main characters (Puccini uses the same technique in La bohème). Tchaikovsky was very familiar with Pushkin’s verse novel on which the opera is based, and he and his friend Konstantin Shilovsky organised the libretto, using much of the original poetry from that work.
Cameron Menzies’s new production frames the opera from the vantage point of the older Tatyana, played by Anne Flanagan. When the opera opens, she is wheeled into a large sparsely decorated room in her care home by her nurse. She recalls the painful events which happened to her and her sister and their lovers. In the famous Letter Scene, she becomes part of the dramatic narrative picking up pages of the letter and handing them over to her younger self. There are memories of the giddy excitement of young love, of new and lost opportunities and of dread as the tragic events inexorably slide into tragedy.
Tchaikovsky follows Pushkin’s lead in setting the action in St Petersburg and the surrounding countryside in the 1820s. In this production the action is split across different time periods. The costumes for the older Tatyana and her nurses indicate a contemporary setting but the main events of the opera take place at the end of the nineteenth century. At various points in the opera the staff in the nursing home join the main participants in the opera in some of the choruses. This had the effect of reminding us of the way in which memory can blur the events of the past and invade the present.
Niall McKeever’s set was a large room sparsely decorated with furniture but also containing items relating to the events of the opera such as bales of hay in the first scene. The set remained consistent throughout and the various scene changes were suggested by Neil O’Driscoll’s video projections and Kevin Treacy’s lighting. There were projections of trees and foliage in the opening scene, opulent lighting in the ballroom scene and rain and snow in the duel scene. Bright lighting shone through the windows at the end of Tatyana’s letter scene. This approach worked well and reinforced the idea that the audience were witnessing these events through the hazy impressionistic lens of Tatyana’s memories.
Gillian Lennox’s costumes helped to anchor the action in particular time frames. In the opening scene the peasants were wearing an impressive variety of period costumes together with straw masks conveying the festive celebrations. The aristocratic men wore formal frock coats, and the women wore simple white dresses for the most part. Onegin was dressed in a lilac riding coat at the start of the opera while the women wore pastel-coloured gowns in the ballroom scene. In contrast the nurses caring for the older Tatyana looked like regular NHS employees.
The cast were on fine form and gave first rate performances. Ukrainian baritone, Yuriy Yurchak, captured the charm and haughty arrogance of Onegin to perfection in the early scenes. There was a striking contrast with the distraught, dishevelled character who we saw languishing at Tatyana’s feet in the final scene. His voice was powerful and imposing at various points rising above big orchestral forces, but he was also sensual and lyrical and blended beautifully with the other performers in the ensemble scenes. His final duet with Mary McCabe’s Tatyana was thrilling both dramatically and musically and his final cries were devastating. Tatyana is Mary McCabe’s first principal role, and she gave an assured performance. She was successful in charting Tatyana’s transformation from shy and smitten country girl to the dazzling aristocrat who greets us at the end of the opera. I would have welcomed a wider palette of tone colours in the famous Letter Scene and at times she needed greater vocal projection. She was more convincing in the final two scenes and her final rejection of Onegin was dramatic and compelling.
Norman Reinhardt excelled in the role of Lensky, and he brought mellifluous lyricism and a boisterous enthusiasm to his vocal entries in the early scenes. He excelled in conveying Lensky’s rising jealousy in the pivotal fourth scene. He sang Lensky’s final aria with a plangent beauty of tone and emotional anguish while the orchestra’s lower strings captured the pervading sense of Russian melancholy. Sarah Richmond invested Olga with a winning exuberance and infectious charm. She gave an accomplished performance of Olga’s aria in the opening scene, and I was struck by the clarity of her diction. She blended beautifully with the other singers in the ensemble numbers.
The other singers provided first rate support throughout. Niall Anderson was particularly impressive in the role of Prince Gremin, bringing enormous weight and depth of sound to the vocal line. Carolyn Dobbin and Jenny Bourke brought the characters of Madame Larina and Filipevna vividly to life. Dobbin was the perfect hostess trying to chart her daughters’ passage in society while Bourke was caring and dispensed homespun wisdom to her charges. Aaron O’Hare clearly had fun with the role of Monsieur Triquet, playing the role of court jester and entertainer.
Dominic Limburg kept a tight grip on the evening’s proceedings and his pacing of the music was exemplary. He and the Orchestra of Northern Ireland Opera captured the drama, emotional anguish and pathos of Tchaikovsky’s score to perfection. Limburg ensured there was a good balance with the singers and the orchestra were flexible in accompanying the vocal numbers. There was a glittering backdrop of sound in the famous Letter Scene. I was impressed with the way in which Limburg was able to ratchet up the excitement in the final part of the fourth scene. The big chorus set piece numbers and dance sequences were executed brilliantly and all of them were greeted with enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Overall, this was a first-rate performance of Tchaikovsky’s great masterpiece and another triumph for Northern Ireland Opera.
Robert Beattie
Click here to read a recent interview with Yuriy Yurchuk and Cameron Menzies
