
Eugene Onegin 2021
Buried desires and dreams corroded with rust.
Potent emotion and sweeping drama take the stage as Tatyana’s confession of love is rejected by Onegin who, a little too late, realizes his mistake.
Tchaikovsky’s lush melodies create the intense drama of one of Pushkin’s greatest stories and Alessandro Talevi’s new production centers on the opera’s nostalgic theme of what was, what was not and what could have been.
Synopsis
Act I
Autumn. The Larin estate in the Russian countryside. Madame Larina makes preserves and listens to her daughters Tatyana and Olga. As the girls sing of young love lost, Larina and the old nurse Filipyevna remember their own youth. A group of peasants carries in a decorated sheaf of grain, and they sing and dance for Larina. Olga, wishing to join their merriment, teases Tatyana for being bookish and misty. Then Larina enters and likewise asks Tatyana the reason for her pallor. Olga in turn teases both her mother and sister, for she sees the approach of her fiancé, the poet Vladimir Lensky. Tatyana, learning that his elegant friend Eugene Onegin is with him, tries to flee in embarrassment.
Lensky arrives with Onegin. Tatyana falls instantly for the handsome stranger, who derides Lensky in private for having chosen the less interesting sister. Lensky and Olga commiserate having spent a whole day apart.
At bedtime, Tatyana can’t sleep. She asks the nurse to tell her stories of the olden days — then confesses she’s fallen in love. She spends the night writing to Onegin; and in the morning she asks Filipyevna to have her letter delivered.
Onegin finds Tatyana in the garden. He’s read her letter and wishes to reciprocate her candor — for he cannot reciprocate her feeling. She is a treasure, but he’s simply not the marrying kind: and she’d do well to restrain her artless ardor, lest another take advantage of her. His sermon ended, he offers her his arm and leads her inside.
Artists

Sara Jakubiak
Soprano
Tatyana

Lucas Meachem
Baritone
Eugene Onegin

Dovlet Nurgeldiyev
Tenor
Lensky

Avery Amereau
Contralto
Olga

James Creswell
Bass
Prince Gremin

Katharine Goeldner
Mezzo-Soprano
Larina

Deborah Nansteel
Mezzo-Soprano
Filipyevna

Matthew DiBattista
Tenor
Monsieur Triquet

Allen-Michael Jones
Bass
Zaretsky

Ethan Vincent
Baritone
Captain

Joseph Tancredi
Tenor
Peasant

Nicholas Carter
Conductor

Alessandro Talevi
Director

Gary McCann
Scenic & Costume Designer

Rick Fisher
Lighting Designer

Susanne Sheston
Chorus Director