Northern Ireland Opera’s Tchaikovksy production is directed by Cameron Menzies, the company’s artistic director
’s freshly restored Grand Opera House in 1981 following a devastating bomb blast. Kenneth Montgomery conducted, but I don’t remember the production itself.
The only “built” set comprises tables, a few chairs and a hay bale, not forgetting assorted debris, stage right, that remains throughout the evening, its potential trip hazard disrupting the formal dances. Niall McKeever, set designer and video director, suggests inside and outside locations through projections on the walls, including a horse, dripping ice and snow, and winter tree branches.
The Ukrainian baritone Yuriy Yurchuk is an ideal Eugene Onégin, assuming a supercilious and smarmy persona, before understanding the error of his ways, only to get his comeuppance. The voice is ideal, with warm, even tone, great quality and an assured, easy production. In the duel, strangely staged on a tabletop, Onégin kills his best friend, the now jealous poet Lensky, Olga’s boyfriend. Lensky is the American tenor Norman Reinhardt, who sings with passion and nicely shaped phrasing.
They sing confidently with good ensemble, sonority and blend – even when dancing, wearing weird masks for the peasants’ pseudo folk songs, or dressed in orange overalls and sweeping the floors during the formal St Petersburg Ball. Considerable classy help is provided by an octet of dancers in Regency-style costumes – designed by Gillian Lennox. They provide the formality of movement for the waltz, polonaise and more, courtesy of Jennifer Rooney, movement director.
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