Eugene Onegin

Tchaikovsky's 1879 opera—fashioned from Pushkin's verse novel—serves up a series of lyrical tableaux that can seem static, but in this 2011 production from Valencia's Palau de les Arts, conductor Omer Meir Wellber leads the orchestra in a vivid reading that is highlighted by quick tempos and passionate playing. Kristine Opolais is vibrant both vocally and dramatically as Tatyana, the young woman infatuated with the arrogant nobleman Onegin—only to be rebuffed by him until years later, when (now married) she rejects his advances. Opolais delivers the famous letter scene beautifully, and Artur Rucinski matches her well in the title role, while Dmitry Korchak is a sweet-voiced Lensky—Tatyana's sister's fiancé, whom Onegin kills in a duel. As with the recent performance from De Nederlandse Opera (VL-7/12), the drawback is the staging, here by Mariusz Trelinski. The overriding concept seems to be that Onegin is remembering everything many years later—which explains the ghostly figure named O*** (Emil Wesolowski) who appears throughout, wordlessly accompanying the principals around the stage. And it also explains why in some scenes the people around the main characters appear to be the walking dead—a conceit that is especially peculiar in the famous polonaise that opens Act III, which essentially becomes a zombie procession. Even so, this interpretation is less eccentric than Stefan Herheim's aforementioned Amsterdam rendition. Presented in DTS 5.1 (DTS-HD 5.1 on the Blu-ray release) and LPCM stereo, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)