Onegin cleans up at the Golden Masks

On 18 April, the winners of the Golden Mask awards for the 2012/2013 season were announced on the historic stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The awards for opera productions were presented by Dmitry Chernyakov, himself a winner on more than one occasion. Before announcing the jury’s decision, the celebrated director told the story of his introduction to opera. As a 13 year-old boy, he accidentally got hold of a ticket — an 80-kopeck circle ticket with a ‘restricted view’. Nevertheless, the performance had such a powerful effect on him that it defined his whole future. And what was the opera that had such an impact on the young Chernyakov? As it happens, it was Eugene Onegin.

Just a coincidence, of course, but it was Eugene Onegin that swept the board in the opera section of the Golden Masks. Dmitry Chernyakov presented Vladimir Kekhman, General Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, with Golden Masks for Best Opera Production and, in the absence of Andriy Zholdak, for Best Director in Opera — both for Eugene Onegin.

Commenting on the jury’s decision, Kommersant newspaper noted: “The radical metaphysics of Andriy Zholdak’s Eugene Onegin must have won the judges over, as they awarded the Mikhailovsky Theatre production the two principal Masks for opera (Best Production and Best Director), as well as the award for Best Lighting (A. J. Weissbard). It has been close to ten years since an opera production was such an unqualified triumph, as demonstrated by its victory in the two main categories: usually, the balance of opinions within the jury results in these two awards going to different productions. Who could have imagined that Zholdak’s deliberately unorthodox Eugene Onegin would meet with such unanimity, even though it did, of course, display all the theatrical makings of a festival favourite in the opera section?”

The theatre has a video recording of the winning production. The recording is currently being prepped for a repeat showing: on 23 April, you will be able to watch Eugene Onegin on our website and on the paraclassics.com website.

The webcast will begin at 13:00 Moscow time (GMT+4).