Opera fans are counting the minutes until the first fall performance of The MET: Live in HD. The season will begin Saturday at Fort Lewis College with a live transmission of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” (pronounced Own-yea-ghin).
Acclaimed Russian diva Anna Netrebko will heat up the stage singing the role of love-struck Tatiana. The virile Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien will stir the coals as Onegin. Between the two, the stage temperature will rise and fall through 3 hours and 45 minutes of passion, provocation, folly, tragedy and time passing.
Based on Alexander Pushkin’s mock-epic verse novel of the same title, the opera is a masterpiece of concision. It took Pushkin, the Russian Shakespeare, eight “books” to create Onegin and the Russia of 1820. Tchaikovsky and his librettist narrowed the dramatic arc to three acts, beginning at a country estate and ending in St. Petersburg. The rural-urban split deliberately contrasts the innocence of one against the sophistication of the other.
The Moscow premiere took place in 1879. Apparently, the composer had been casting about for a subject. Pushkin’s writings had been the source of other operas such as Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” and Tchaikovsky’s own “Queen of Spades.”
Like so many creative beginnings, the idea for “Onegin” as an opera came about after dinner with friends. With librettist Konstantin Shilovsky, the composer began a radical reduction of the story before setting any music. Tchaikovsky truncated Pushkin’s extended portrait of the anti-hero, made his falling out with Lenski pivotal and, in general, enhanced the role of Tatiana.
Cynical, detached and subject to Byronic moodiness, Onegin is a bored aristocrat. The so-called superfluous man had already surfaced in European literature, and Pushkin created the first indelible Russian literary version. Caught between stale convention and inner ennui, Onegin drifts about, seducing women and disappointing friends. One happens to be the young, idealistic poet Lenski (tenor Piotr Beczala).
Act I begins when the two friends arrive at the Larin country estate to meet Lenski’s fiancé. Olga (mezzo Oksana Volkova) is the flirtatious older sister of Tatiana, a bookish adolescent. Shy Tatiana takes one look at worldly Onegin and falls for him, a crush with consequences including a famous 12-minute letter scene that is every soprano’s dream. Her letter is delivered, but before Act I concludes, Onegin coolly disabuses the girl of her fantasy. It’s a rejection that has psychological and musical echoes in Act III.
In Act II, Onegin reluctantly returns to the country with Lenski. Thinking he will have to endure only a small gathering, Onegin discovers he’s been roped into a grand name-day ball for Tatiana. In a churlish aristocratic pout, Onegin gets back at his friend by openly and suggestively flirting with Olga. Incensed, Lenski challenges Onegin to a duel. Trapped by foolish social convention, Onegin accepts and gets a good night’s sleep. Lenski doesn’t, and Lenski’s Aria is one of the most stirring laments in all music.
Time passes in Pushkin’s novel and in the opera. Act III takes place years later when Onegin unexpectedly encounters a changed Tatiana. A glittering party in St. Petersburg deliberately balances the country name-day ball from Act II. When Onegin sees Tatiana, now well married and in high society, he cannot believe his eyes.
If you don’t know the ending, it won’t be given away here.
All that will be said is that The Metropolitan Opera will create a Russian snowfall to remember.
jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, artist and critic.
If you go
The MET: Live in HD will present Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” at 10:55 a.m. Saturday in the Vallecito Room of the Fort Lewis College Student Union. Tickets cost $23 for general admission, $21 for seniors, students and MET members, available online at www.durangoconcerts.com, by phone at 247-7657 or at the Welcome Center at Eighth Street and Main Avenue, and at the door. Note: There are different surcharges per ticket including in-person and cash. Running time: 3 hours, 45 minutes.
