Customer Reviews

Eugene Onegin

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This perfomance of Onegin is one of the most musical I have seen over the past 30 years. I do remember great performances at the Metropolitan opera with Zylis-Gara and Gedda and a great performance by the Bolshoi when they first came to the Met about 30 years ago. The beauty of this performance however is the total perfection of ensemble staging, singing, acting and conducting all within beautiful sets. The individual singers have excellent techniques, unforced beautiful voices and a true feeling for the nuances of the opera which is conducted to perfection by an unlisted conductor who projects his great love and appreciation of the score. The performers are ideally cast and are embodiments of their roles. However, it is the high quality of the singing and interpretations of every singer that make this such a satisfactory performance. Of course honors go to the beautiful Tatanya whose transformation from the innocent young girl of the letter scene to the mature torn woman of the final scene is reflected in her voice and acting. The same can be said for the Onegin whose arrogance at the beginning to the defeated and tragic figure of the final scene moves the opera to its inevitable conclusion. The Lensky sings and acts the role of the young poet with an inner passion that illuminates the unfolding tragedy;the famous aria is movingly delivered. One is struck by the high quality of artistry of the other members of cast--There is not a wobbly or strained voice. The sets are traditional and beautiful reflecting the lyricism of the text and opera. Unfortunately the modern settings and stagings of Onegin at the Metropolitan and Kirov are not of the same caliber as this performance--in fact they are to be avoided. The only complaint that I have is that this is a 1984 taped live performance, and the technology is not up to 2006 standards--However, the innate beauty of every aspect of this production overides any technical limitations. Onegin is captured as the composer may have envisioned it in his mind as he wrote this glorious music. A gold standard has been set by this performance.

This 1984 performance of "Eugene Onegin" from the Kirov is just marvelous. When they're on their game, nobody performs Russian opera like the Russians, and this performance has the sense of a real occasion.

It's hard to know where to begin the praise - the voices, characterization, sets - they are all terrific. All four main singers are young, good looking, have excellent stage presence, inhabit their characters superbly and are in fine voice. The drama is very real here, with everyone inside their role, even the smaller parts. There is not a wobbly voice in the bunch. None of the old fashioned, curdly-voiced female singers that use to inhabit Russian performances too often. Sergei Leiferkus is a poised, dark Onegin, even gaining one's sympathy at the end. Tatiana Novikova has a lovely, lyrical soprano and is a radiant Tatiana, totally believable as both the young ingenue and later Gremin's wife. Larissa Dyadkova is joyous and outgoing without going overboard as Olga, and Yuri Marusin is impassioned as the tortured Lensky. Prince Gremin's famous love aria in Act 3, sung by Nikolai Okhotnikov, is so poignantly done it practically brings down the house.

The staging is traditionally, as best befits the opera, with lovely costumes and beautiful, evocative sets that would be hard to match. Glorious! Unlike the first two Amazon reviewers of this video, I thought the picture and sound were just fine. In fact, the balance between voices and orchestra was a model of clarity, with both being well projected and easy to hear. The conducting of Yuri Temirkanov (who is not mentioned in Kultur's DVD presentation) is quite broad and very poignant, yet he has all the requisite drama and fire when called for. Temirkanov is particularly good in transitions from lyrical to dramatic subjects. The Kirov Orchestra is very fine, with special kudos to the first horn.

Chorus and dancers must also receive special praise. Good Russian choruses have a special ring to them that is so right for this music, and the dancing (this is, after all, the Kirov!) is a joy. Among the few mostly insignificant caveats are some excess audience coughing, some minor picture flutter in distance shots, and a tendency to film too much of the dancing from too far away. Nothing to get remotely in a boil about. This DVD has classic status written all over it. An easy 5 stars.

I was surprised to read those two reviews. I couldn't believe that someone who likes Eugene Onegin could only give one star. This is the best Onegin I have seen. The sets are beautiful and the singing is very good. It is not bad technically either. So this DVD CAN be enjoyed!

This DVD is the best "Onegin" performance which I saw. Voices, costumes and style are really very very good. I just sang Tatiana last month and this DVD helped me in preparation a lot. All me american partners really like it. I hope you will enjoy it too.

This version of Eugene Onegin is excellent! I watched this movie with the score and know this opera extreamly well and it's all there. If you are a muscian like myself you should appreciate how the conductor is so brilliant with the music. Has English subtitals with good translation but are not removable, the sound quality is great, the sets are beautiful, and the singers sing very well and even act! Also the looks of these performers truely reflect the story's character's personalaties. The performance was perfact. I could feel the characters situations, Tatiana's anguish, Onegin being misjudged by socity and his change through the story relly portrayed, Olga's playfulness, and Lensky's passonate heart of a poet. Also Nyanya being old while Russian tradition changing acted so appropriately. I am moved every time I watch this film. An excellent edition!

Consider what this opera means to the Russians...a famous Russian novel set by the most famous and popular Russian composer. The conductor conducts the performance from memory with his eyes closed much of the time as if he were in a trance. The sets are traditional and give an authentic feel for the time and place of the story unlike the almost embarassing minimalism of the new Met production. The singing is uniformly good although no singer seems truly world class save the Onegin himself. What is bothersome about the performance is that, while it is advertised as "live" I suspect that a camera was focused on the whole performance from a distance. Closeup shots were later filmed with the complete soundtrack and the singers lip synching to the original. The problem is that, unlike the full stage shots where everything seems to be cooordinated, the singers are often ill at ease trying to keep in synch when, since it is a close up, they should be most secure. I am not a fan of opera "films" since I know the physical demands of singing and relish the "body language" that goes into a fine performance dramatically and vocally. I also dislike updating of any sort since there is so much in the psychology of the characters that is tied to their time and place. For this reason I prefer "traditional" settings and live videos of opera performances. And for this reason this performance is slightly less satsifying than it could have been because of the caveats noted above. Still, one can't go wrong with it.

Living in Australia, I have not had the pleasure of attending a live performance of this wonderful opera. I was "blown away" by this performance on DVD. The combination of a story by the incomparable Pushkin, Tschaikovsky's sensitive, lyrical musical score, excellent singing (the excessive vibrato which plagues many Russian singers was mercifully absent), believable casting, a great orchestra and excellent sets all contribute to a moving performance. Tatiana Novikova lives rather than acts Tatiana. Her performance of the crucial letter scene is sensitive, poignant and very moving. Onegin and Lenski are magnificent too, as are the minor roles, not forgetting the unnamed tenor who plays Monsier Triquet. His gracious tribute to Tatiana is running through my head as I write this.

But unfortunately there is a downside to this disc. Audience noises during quiet passages are offensive, the English subtitles are too obtrusive, the sound and video qualities are not up to modern standards and there are several minor glitches in my copy. Hence, four stars.

I can say that I delight in operatic sublety from Tchaikovsky
compared to say Wagner's adorable bombast. "Onegin" is an example of
what I call great music drama: good story plus superb music. After all,
beauty, fortunately, is subjective (pardon the cliche)--this cd is
for all opera lovers...

This 1984 performance looks now a bit faded and old fashioned. It is a pity, because the musical performance is good. The technical quality of the DVD is poor. The picture is not smooth enough, and the sound lacks definition and sheen. English subtitles are available, but it can't be turned off. The 2000 performance on the TDK DVD is definitely preferable.

Extremely disappointed in the video quality. Looks like it was shot with a 16mm camera from the balcony not a DVD. Returned this immediately. How could Kultur release something like this?