Onegin returns

Andriy Zholdak’s production of the opera Eugene Onegin returns to the Mikhailovsky Theatre stage in May. The performance emerged victorious at last year’s Golden Mask Awards. The acclaimed European director’s debut operatic work was the winner in three categories, including Best Opera Production and Best Opera Director.

In the run up to the première in 2012, Zholdak predicted that his version of Tchaikovsky’s opera would offer a unique challenge to St. Petersburg audiences. The experience of this stark, ‘black-and-white’ production of Onegin turned out to be a timely inoculation, helping the more conservative sections of the opera-going public to go on to appreciate Andrey Moguchy’s avant-garde explorations in his production of The Tsar’s Bride and Dmitri Tcherniakov’s radical reading of Il trovatore.

Zholdak’s production is wildly open to interpretation and different readings. The nuances and subtext of the libretto are intertwined with aspects of the composer’s personality and milestones from his biography. In interviews, the director himself stressed that in his interpretation of Onegin there is a “deep feeling for humankind, for what is human, and for humanity itself.” On the other hand Zholdak, by his own admission, also attempted to convey the black-and-white theme which was so important for Tchaikovsky and so clearly evident in Swan Lake. Finally, having “flipped the binoculars around” and viewed Pushkin, the original author of Onegin, only from afar, the director made efforts to convey “Tchaikovsky’s inherent passion”. The result of this was a performance “quite literally bursting with explosive elements and electrons of passion.”

On the back of the opera’s success and recognition in its native country, the ‘black-and-white’ Onegin was slated to continue its stage life at the Opéra National de Bordeaux. However, a change of management at the French theatre put the project on hold. During the same period, the Mikhailovsky Theatre received a flurry of letters and requests for Zholdak’s Onegin to come back to its home stage. This much anticipated return marks the 175th anniversary of Tchaikovsky’s birth. The première performances will take place on 5, 6, 10, and 11 May. The cast of 2012 will reprise their roles: Tatiana Ryaguzova as Tatiana, Janis Apeinis as Eugene Onegin, Irina Shishkova as Olga, and Evgeny Akhmedov as Lensky. The conductor’s podium will be occupied by the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s principal conductor, Mikhail Tatarnikov.