Kudos to SF Opera for dealing with the issue up front in a fact-based, thoughtful program article, which includes this historical reference: In the seven months since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, producing a Russian opera with Russian singers now leads not only to a demonstration in front of the War Memorial but also to questions in the minds of many. This is not regieoper it’s opera-cide by director.Įvan LeRoy Johnson as Lensky and Gordon Bintner as Onegin in San Francisco Opera’s Eugene Onegin | Credit: Cory Weaverįinally, the politics of the event. The polonaise is played (well) by the orchestra, but there are no dancers, and instead of years, just minutes go by. Onegin comes downstage to be changed into evening wear by a group of servants, and Lensky’s corpse is carried out. What Tchaikovsky did after Onegin kills Lensky in a duel is to bring down the curtain, pause for the audience to catch its breath, and use the polonaise to bridge the jump in time to years later, when Tatyana is married to a prince. Most unfortunate is Carsen’s demolishing of the fourth wall to show a costume change in front of the stage, interrupting a crucial moment in the story. How this carpet of birch substitutes cover the floor of Tatyana’s supposedly indoor bedroom is a mystery, but that doesn’t prevent Carsen from making the heroine roll passionately in polyester. One additional presence in Act 1 is 40 bushels’ worth of painted polyester pieces representing birch leaves from some symbolic trees that occasionally appear as part of the scrim. Until the crowd scenes of Act 2, the stage remains mostly bare.
#SANTA FE OPERA EUGENE ONEGIN FULL#
The set consists of three gigantic PVC panels that cover most of the full dimensions of the War Memorial stage. The SF Opera Chorus in Act 2 of Eugene Onegin | Credit: Cory Weaver
The strings did their best approximation of a “Russian sound” Gabriel Young performed an affecting oboe obbligato in the Letter Scene the brass came to life for the dances. Led by the debuting Greek conductor Vassilis Christopoulos, the SF Opera Orchestra performed smoothly, with only a few instances of being ahead or behind the singers. There was also a special appearance in the one-aria “small role” of Prince Gremin: Ferruccio Furlanetto, whose 43-year-long participation in the company - ranging from roles in Così fan tutte to Attila - was acknowledged with the San Francisco Opera Medal. In the role of Vladimir Lensky (this reviewer noticed the character’s first name after 50 years of missing it), the young tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson filled the cavernous War Memorial with a gorgeous, well-focused, lyrical voice.
Muraveva and Canadian bass-baritone Gordon Bintner (Onegin) both shone in their big moments, the soprano in an affecting Letter Scene, Bintner in his futile attempt at the opera’s end to reverse his rejection of Tatyana now that she is a princess. Aigul Akhmetshina as Olga in San Francisco Opera’s Eugene Onegin | Credit: Cory Weaver
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