Eugene_Onegin_Mariinsky

By Joseph Giannino
OperaOnline.us

On Friday evening, February 26th, as part of the Kennedy Center’s annual program with the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra, audiences were treated to a concert performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin.”

I have seen many concert performances. My recent review of Wagner’s Gotterdammerung noted how a concert performance can be spectacular and how it can convincingly bring an audience to the core of the work even without elaborate sets and costumes. Friday’s performance succeeded on this level, even though it lacked in others. While the principles did a fine job, this is a hard show to pull off with everyone simply standing still on stage. The two main dramatic points of the opera consist of a lavish ballroom dance scene and the other, a gun duel ending in the death of one of the main characters. This performance lacked those dramatic flares. That said, the cast did a commendable job and by the end of the performance I suspect the audience felt a solid connection to the characters they portrayed, even with the limitations noted above.

Baritone Alexey Markov sang the title role of Onegin. It was immediately evident that his deep, rich and textured sound was perfect for the role. His delivery appeared effortless throughout the evening. His friend, and then foe, was tenor Sergey Semishkur, who sang the role of the lovesick and innocent Lensky. This is a character I have always enjoyed. The character’s emotions are real and, when done right, are heartfelt. Markov’s vocal delivery, when singing, especially to Olga, his love interest, was warm and passionate.

Tatyana, sung by Soprano Irina Mataeva and Olga, sung by Mezzo-Soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk, gave solid, believable performances as well.

Ms. Mataeva was wonderfully sad and in character throughout the evening. Her “Letter” scene was delivered beautifully and with clear emotion. This is a difficult, long passage that requires the one singing it to project beyond the orchestra and its brass section – a feat made more difficult here since the orchestra was on stage behind her. That said, I thought she did a great job and maintained a solid vocal line throughout the performance, delivering a beautiful duet with Onegin at the end of the performance.

Ms. Semenchuk, singing the role of Olga, gave a performance that was truly remarkable. She displayed a rich tone that projected beautifully with strong expressiveness, maintaining the emotion and sensitivity of her character throughout.

Rounding out the cast were Svetlana Volkova as Madame Larina and Elena Vitman as Tatyana’s nurse – both doing commendable jobs and complimenting the ensemble of this splendid presentation.

The real stand out of the evening and the performer who gave me the greatest excitement was conductor Valery Gergiev. He is a larger than life personality and though he has been criticized in the past for uneven tempos I found his conducting of this performance truly mesmerizing,. I have seen him conduct from the pit but never on stage. This was a real treat. He moved the music along with a nice pace and only occasionally did I feel there was an issue with there being too much volume from the brass section. Still, having this wonderful Russian music in the capable hands of Gergiev was about as perfect as it can get.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable evening with a great cast that demonstrated a terrific understanding of the piece. I enjoyed it and suspect the audience did, too.

Conductor: Valery Gergiev