Flaws are major assets in fine Tchaikovsky show

Met HD Live Perth Playhouse, Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin

The Met HD Live presentation of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin was so good on so many levels, even its flaws being major assets.

Both its major stars looked really too old for their roles. Though glorious of voice Anna Netrebko now looks a little too stately for the young Tatiana and her acting is more mature than Tchaikovsky’s/ Pushkin’s character. However, this pays dividends at the end of the opera where with nobility, though still a struggle, she rejects Onegin.

Swedish baritone Peter Mattei, again in fantastic voice, hardly looked the young, cynical, arrogant Onegin. However, he played his part to convincing perfection: lecturing Tatiana about young love, and at the end his despair at what he had so carelessly thrown away.

The Deborah Warner production is the same as seen in 2014, apart from gaining shimmering side walls and shiny floors, which do add indistinct, infinite views. It is the investment that the two principals have made in the piece which has turned it from a good performance to a memorable one.

Another notable improvement was Russian tenor Alexey Dolgov as Onegin’s hypersensitive poet friend. His finely lyric tone convinced in his Romantic outpourings.

Bass Stefan Kocan was in fine voice as the supposedly older Prince Gremin, at the end Tatiana’s husband, but he looked too small and young compared to Onegin.

Of local interest was that Robin Ticciati was in charge of the Met Orchestra, giving force to all orchestral moments, but never overdoing it.

The final telecast for this season is on May 13. It promises to be a sumptuous production of Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier with Renée Flemming as the Marschallin.

Ian Stuart-Hunter