Eugene Onegin from the Met

Eugene Onegin
from the Metropolitan Opera
Live HD movie theatre broadcast
Edwards Cinemas, Alhambra, CA
Saturday, February 24, 2007, 10:30am PST

I really enjoyed the Met's live movie theatre broadcast of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin on Saturday. There were stunning performances, a fabulous production and a really great opera - all wrapped up in a tidy package for the movie theatre broadcast.

What's great about the Met movie theater broadcasts is that you not only hear the music, but you can understand it as well thanks to the subtitles on the screen. The famous radio broadcasts are great and all, but for someone like me, who doesn't know the operas very well, it's not easy to follow along without radio translations. On the giant movie theatre screen, there are subtitles so you can follow along, the sound is fabulous coming out of surround sound speakers, and you get the visual thrill of the production as well. While I think the radio broadcasts are valuable for people who are already fans of opera, it's the movie theatre broadcasts that have the potential to develop a new audience. I was able to drag a few friends along this time, and they loved it (they said they thought they were going to be bored).

The broadcasts are so well produced that it's almost more fun going to these than going to the live opera: close ups on the singers, surround sound, subtitles right in front of you in a readable space (although Beverly Sills must be stopped from giving stilted, not funny - as hard as she's trying to be - awkward intermission interviews!). Plus, the performances broadcast are of the highest caliber in stunning productions - would it be that the Met is giving live opera in regional houses a run for its money?

The principal attraction for me seeing this broadcast was Renée Fleming as Tatiana. I've loved her an all of her LA area appearances, mostly for the thrilling soft notes and remarkable expressive control she has with her voice. But everyone else seemed to be most excited about Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Onegin, and after watching Onegin I can see why. I was excited by both of them: very detailed, believable acting and wonderful musical sound from both as well. And Ramón Vargas, as Onegin's poet friend Lenski, blew the roof off the theatre with his Act 2 solo. Valery Gergiev conducted.

I also found Onegin, especially as directed in this production, to be very satisfying dramatically. In my short time going to the opera, I've learned to be forgiving of dramatic lapses in time or other story shortcomings, such as in La Boheme, which between acts leaps over large expanses of time and important events - like the main lovers breaking up happening off stage. And in many other operas, sudden outpourings of emotion come for seemingly small events. With Onegin, the relationships progress much more naturally with the stage time. Yes, Tatiana falls in love passionately, but this production tempers the emotion and makes you see why. And then, in the the opera itself, the emotion is tempered when Tatiana is lectured by Onegin to control her emotions in the future. Oh yeah, and did I mention I'm used to providing excsues for opera singers who aren't acting on stage? I didn't have to this time around, they were all extremely realistic and touching in their portrayals. I feel like I shouldn't have to be impressed by the acting in opera, but I was in this Met broadcast. It was really wonderful.

The Met's production, by Robert Carsen, was fairly spare but extravagant: Scenically there wasn't much - white panels framed the stage - but props and costumes were pretty extravagant. Act 1 had a huge mass of leaves covering the stage, and while the leaves disappeared for Acts 2 & 3, there were fancy chairs and fantastically elaborate costumes. Because of this, we weren't looking at the sets, we were looking at the people. The staging mapped out the relationships of the characters in the visual stage space, and since we were watching the singers only, they had to sing and act strongly without the benefit of sets or lighting to help out. It was spare, but very effective.

I also enjoyed Tchaikovsky's score a lot. Of course, it's not hard to like Tchaikovsky since he writes pretty dramatic and beautiful music. I'm more familiar with his ballet music (Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Nutcracker), but now I'll have to look into his operas as well.

This is going to be a very operatic week for me. Based on my thrill with the Met broadcasts, I bought tickets a few weeks ago for Opera Pacific's Carmen, which I'm seeing tonight. And tomorrow I'm going to LA Opera's much hyped, but also much 'blah' reviewed Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony. At least the fantastic Audra McDonald will keep me entertained if that goes awry.