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Masterpiece from a masterpiece

22/09/2009

The Genesis Energy Season of Eugene Onegin, Sept/Oct 2009

PUBLICATION: New Zealand Listener
REVIEWED BY: Rod Biss
DATE: 22 September 2009
WHERE: Aotea Centre, opening night

Alexander Pushkin's novel Eugene Onegin is rich in 19th-century Russian detail. It tells of the complex relationship between the land-owning aristocracy and the workers in their fields, of the boredom of life in the country, where it was assumed land-owners had no work to do, of the disdain the city felt for the country, and of the conflict between the desire to be Russian while also embracing the civilised elegance of western Europe.

Tchaikovsky knew the significance of Eugene Onegin to every educated -Russian. He loved the work but hesitated to set it, but once he had embraced the idea, he worked feverishly at it, creating what we can see in Patrick Nolan's new production for NBR New Zealand Opera is itself a masterpiece.

Nolan unfailingly respects both Pushkin and Tchaikovsky; his production is as beautiful to look at as it is magnificent to listen to. He paints in the Russian details and makes no attempt to wrench it from its period setting. Under his direction of the large cast and chorus, the story has an inevitability that makes one suffer and sympathise with all the characters. It is NZ Opera's finest homegrown creation to date.

Genevieve Blanchett's sets are essentially simple: for the opening outdoor scene, just a row of birch trees, a garden table, a flat horizon and clouds in the background. Tatyana's bedroom has no details other than the table at which she sits writing. The other settings are varied positionings of dark-coloured towers encrusted with period mouldings. The richly coloured costumes, enhanced by Bernie Tan's lighting, come from Opera Australia but have been radically transformed for this production by Blanchett and -Elizabeth Whiting.

As young, naive Tatyana, whose perception of love is taken entirely from romantic novels, Anna Leese gives a performance that has understanding and growth. It is a superb new role for her voice, which is now strong, well projected, lyrical yet with exciting high notes.

The cynical Onegin, with whom Tat-yana falls so disastrously in love, is sung and acted with dashing ardour by baritone William Dazely. Lensky, their rather more prosaic neighbour, is sung with flowing elegance by Roman Shulackoff. Tatyana's sister Olga is given real meaning by Kristen Darragh, and Patricia Wright has convincing maternal warmth as their mother, Madame Larina.

The final act, years later, moves to the impressive house of Prince Gremin in St Petersburg. The scene opens with a polonaise, strangely choreographed by Timothy Gordon, the one miscalculation of the production, though the scene develops magnificently with Gremin's entrance. Martin Snell's noble singing of his aria, which tells Onegin of Gremin's mature love for Tatyana, now his wife, is one of the production's great moments.

The scoring of the opera and the -extensive choral writing are just two of the many glories of the piece, conducted with great understanding by Alexander Polianichko.

Eugene Onegin is an opera you simply must see.