DVD review
Renée Fleming (Tatiana), Elena Zaremba (Olga), Svetlana Volkova (Madame Larin), Larisa Shevchenko (Filippyevna), Ramón Vargas (Lenski), Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (Triquet), Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Eugene Onegin), Sergei Alexashkin (Prince Gremin), Richard Bernstein (Zaretsky)
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet c. Valery Gergiev p. Robert Carsen d. Michael Levine video director Brian Large
DECCA 074 3248 (2 Discs – 156 minutes)
This 2007 revival of Robert Carsen’s ten-year old production was rapturously received in some quarters, with most excitement generated by Renée Fleming’s debut in the role at the Met. While singing with her customary tonal refulgence, she does not seem to be inside the role as yet. Parts are deeply felt, yet lengths in the letter-scene seem unspecific as regards character and emotion. Maybe it is to do with the language, which she does talk about in an involving little behind-the-scenes interview included as a DVD extra, compered (presumably one of her last-ever appearances) by Beverly Sills. Fleming does convince as a young girl and her reactions are most touching when Onegin lectures her, and her placid hauteur in the last act is successful at hinting she is still the same deeply vulnerable and romantic girl as at the opening. The final scene springs to life: she and Dmitri Hvorostovsky really strike sparks, registering all the pain, regret and desperation that this infinitely touching opera can illumine. Hvorostovsky is a natural for this role, charismatic, disdainful and most detailed in reaction; only his over the top hysteria at the end of the St Petersburg ball scene strikes a false note – presumably a directorial idea – as Fleming’s outburst at the climax of the letter scene parallels it, and seems similarly meretricious in the context of a work that seems to thrive on understatement. Vargas sings with ease and splendour, most ardent at the Larin’s ball, but lacks introspection and real desolation in his aria in the duel scene. Nonetheless, the cast acts as an ensemble, with notable cameos from Sergei Alexashkin as Gremin and Jean-Paul Fouchécourt as Triquet, and it is a luxury to have Larisa Shevchenko (a powerhouse Lady Macbeth of Mtensk) as a deliciously common-sense Filippyevna. Only Elena Zaremba’s Olga is too mature for a skittish little sister; her friskiness is a bit disconcerting. The production is very pared back for the Met, and I can imagine the bare vistas being striking live – particularly the first act with an evocative carpet of autumn leaves, though the duel scene lacks atmosphere and one sense the performers are left stranded in a vast expanse. Unfortunately, the size of the Met stage precludes the camera taking in the whole picture; panning and scanning results in an absence of coherence and some close-ups are downright perverse. Why does the camera pull away from Hvorostovsky just as Gremin announces that he is married to Tatyana? We lose his reaction – and there are many other little moments where the viewer is jolted out of the drama. Gergiev steers an unerring course through the score, revealing much, and the chorus are reasonably focused. A safe choice for an Onegin; most enjoyable, but not quite the great experience the press comments would have you believe.
[first published in OPERA magazine]
JULIAN GRANT 2008