Met Onegin

[Drew]

I would be interested in hearing reactions to the Met movie theater broadcast of Eugene Onegin. I enjoyed it greatly, but am far from knowledgeable about opera....

[bart]

Like Drew, I'm an amateur, though I've seen Onegin numerous times dating back to the old pre-supertitle days at the NYC Opera and Met. Within the past few months I've seen two videos -- one a movie using beautiful young Russian actors who lipsyched the parts, and another from the Bolshoi stage. Each time I see the opera, now that I know what they're saying and what their characters are like, I come to love this opera more and more.

This Met experience was, for me, the best so far. The simple stage setting makes the elaborate productions of their Magic Flute and Last Emperor seem excessive. The autumn leaves. The peasant women sweeping them during their lovely folksong, so that only at the end do we realize that they have cleared a perfect oval at the center of the stage. The crowded provincial ball, with its mismatched chairs and dresses, compared with the grand Petersburg ball, with all the chairs the same and all the characters black. Etc Etc.

Gergiev's orchestera and especially the chorus were brilliant. As far as I could tell, the individual singers (even those in small parts, like the man who organizes the duel) were wonderful.

I think the focus on the characters -- and the way their big arias were presented -- was the aspect that moved me most. Tatiana's mother becomes a memorable person, her repeated point about the way that habit becomes even more important than happiness if you're lucky was deeply moving. The nurse, often played for the silliness in her character, was much more than that. A beautifuly singer with a beautiful face.

Renee Fleming, singing Tatiana's letter aria and running through the leaves, tossing them in the air in passionate abandon, convinced me for the first time tht this young girl's feelings were as deep and tumultuous as the words (and as the consequences when Onegin receives the letter) Lenski's aria, delivered by Ramon Vargas standing perfectly still and alone on a vast empty stage, was actually the highlight of this production. Both Fleming and Vargas brought tears to my eyes. So did Prince Gremin's aria, though other Gremins have also had this effect on me.

Onegin is the only character who does not move me. Hvorotovsky's voice is staggeringly rich and beautiful. He is handsome on a level that I can only think of as "unreal." But he doesn't get deeply into the character Or, perhaps, the character doesn't have much depth to begin with. At any rate, it's hard to care much about him at the end or about where he's going next. (The production introduces his older self alone and silent on stage during the orchestral introduction to each of this production's two acts)

I know that some Ballet Talk posters also contribute to opera boards and will no doubt be posting their responses there. But I hope that some of you, at least, will share your reponses with us here as well. Those of us who don't know much about singing need your help.

My only complaints:

(1) Onegin is NOT a good introduction to "L'italiana in algeri," which I saw saw in two live performances later in the weeekend; and

2) MORE Beverly Sills during the intermissions, please.

[SanderO]

Bart or anyone else... can you provide links to Opera boards which would be on par with Ballet Talk?

[vipa]

Bart or anyone else... can you provide links to Opera boards which would be on par with Ballet Talk?

I believe the Met version used to have more dancing than it now has. I recall a Polanaise (many years ago) that may have been Balanchine. I could be totally wrong.

[richard53dog]

Bart or anyone else... can you provide links to Opera boards which would be on par with Ballet Talk?

A huge, "somewhat" moderated opera board is Opera-L

It's sits on the CUNY server.

It is pretty Met-centric

Here's the URL to read posts (you can read without joing) But from the same archive page you can do searches and also join and post (2 posts per day)

http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/opera-l.html

[Helene]

To give more detail, "Opera-L" is a list, which works a bit differently than a message board. The first few messages, which are emailed to the entire list, are reviewed before they are posted, much like our "Moderated" function. You can choose to get individual emails or daily or weekly digests of all of the posts. There is a limit of two messages per 24-hour period. Responses can be to the writer -- that's the default value in the message screen -- or to the entire list, and an archive of all responses to the general list.

In a Moderated situation, it's hard to tell what is being blocked, but I can speak to what makes it through. The only posts that I've seen that are publicly chastised by the board Moderator are copyright violations, since this endangers hosting on the CUNY servers. There are a core of contributors who write beautiful, cogent, historically accurate material and well-reasoned analysis, and I have a mail folder where I keep the best of these. For me, they make the "noise" worth putting up with.

As richard53dog mentions, the board is very Met-centric first, and New York centric second. (There's a Yahoo group devoted to performances in London (LondonOperaCommunity], and it provides great information for visitors.) In fact, there was a quite contentious set of "threads" a couple of months ago in which the subject of whether the Met is the center of opera universe was discussed. Be prepared, though: there are clusters of personal insult, direct and implied, that is tolerated, of which "Jane, you ignorant slut" is about par.

[zerbinetta]

Vipa: the old (former) production of Onegin had Balanchine's choreography in both the birthday party scene & the Gremin ball. When this new production premiered (about ten years ago), the choreography also was new, which is always the case for opera productions .. unfortunately in this instance.

[richard53dog]

To give more detail, "Opera-L" is a list, which works a bit differently than a message board. The first few messages, which are emailed to the entire list, are reviewed before they are posted, much like our "Moderated" function. You can choose to get individual emails or daily or weekly digests of all of the posts . There is a limit of two messages per 24-hour period. Responses can be to the writer -- that's the default value in the message screen -- or to the entire list, and an archive of all responses to the general list.

What Helene notes is apt. I didn't mention the individual emails, digests, etc because I forgot about them!

I don't get the emails at all, I read from from list itself . That's my own preference so I don't have a huge amount of email coming it. So in that respect, except for the addressing options, it works for me a lot

like Ballet Talk

[kfw]

Bart, thanks a lot for the review. I was tempted to go see this on the big screen myself, but decided against it because . . . PBS will broadcast it this spring!

[bart]

I was tempted to go see this on the big screen myself, but decided against it because . . . PBS will broadcast it this spring!

If the Met continues broadcasting these shows fairly soon after the theater simulcast, I wonder how many others will join you at the tv rather than in the theater. Will they turn out to be competing with themselves?

I find the theater experience unique and powerful. But I do admit that there are other things one might do on a Saturday afternoon.

[Drew]

I think the big screen makes a difference. I am often bored by opera on television and have not been the least bit bored by the two productions I have seen in the movie theater, Magic Flute and Eugene Onegin. There is also a bit less of a disconnect between opera--with its over-the-topness--and the big screen than between opera and television. (Of course, I don't think it hurt the Onegin that Fleming and Hvorostovsky seem to belong in the movies.) But still, knowing that a broadcast will be on television very soon is bound to keep people from buying tickets to see it in a theater.

[carbro]

I don't know. In the old days, we knew we could see virtually every film broadcast on the commercial vhf channels within three to four years. Then HBO, Showtime et al. for subscribers to those services, then by renting the cassette/dvd. Yesterday, I noticed that my post office has a mail chute dedicated to NetFlix, not unlike the mid-April dedicated baskets for the IRS.

And yet, first-run theaters seem to be doing just fine.