5/5 Excellent in Every Way
  by Opera Lover (New Zealand)
I thought everything about this production; singing, acting and production was excellent; one of the best opera dvds I have ever seen.

5/5 Eugene Onegin - again, good.
  by Opera Lover (California)
Was going for a cd but DVD will be fun to watch - when I can sit down. I can listen to DVD though.

Cheers.

5/5 A heartfelt moving modern production
  by C. Harbison (Montague, MA United States)
This is a very striking modern production of the opera in line with Nikolaus Lehnhoff's other attempts (a wonderful series of Janacek operas from Glyndebourne and the new Parsifal)--strong, at times symbolic, use of colors, simplified sets, traditional costumes and details. The singers are all young--no great voices here--but tremendously committed and convincing. The conducting is as good as in any recording, full of color and unexpected detail. To really appreciate Tchaikovsky's world and musical/pictorial image you would no doubt want to see one of the good Russian DVDs (Bolshoi or Kirov); but this is a very moving performance which stands up well beside the more traditional ones.

4/5 Flawed, but distinctive Euro Onegin from young cast
  by David H. Spence (Houston, TX)
Among six versions on vhs or dvd or Eugen Onegin now, this European Union Opera Company (EU) Onegin is one of the two modernist ones, the other of which (produced by Graham Vick) on the one hand, mixes in more traditional elements than this one does, but fatally loses so much focus, intensity for its second half. The EU version makes excruciating drama out of all critical passages in its final hour. The much more than casually engaged interaction between all characters in this Onegin belies that it was one put together under international auspices.

Nikolaus Lehnhoff is the producer for the EU dvd. It starts out not promising quite as much as it will deliver, whereas the Vick/Davis one does start off quite well, with Andrew Davis offering a little more flow from the podium than an at first slightly heavier Rozhdestvensky. Orla Boylan, on the EU, strikes some viewers as a little above the middleweight limit (and the Act 3 derived frontispiece for newcomers especially is a little unfair), the Filipievna (Katja Boost) as not looking any older than the sisters; the Larina of Ineke Vlogtman holds her own, compared with the cameo appearance by Yvonne Minton on the Vick/Davis.

The handsome, energetic Olga of Anna Burford offers deep contralto reserves, but comes off as just a bit too hyper early on. All issues brought up here so far are minor, including a brief line of sagging pitch by the entering Onegin of Vladimir Glushchak during the quartet of lovers. The Lensky is Michael Konig, who perhaps gives a little too early hint of what a hothead this character quickly becomes in Act Two. He sings lyrically, attractively enough, when not compelled to force, which occurs momentarily only twice. The dreamy poet Lensky of Martin Thompson on Vick/Davis is a little preferable.

What is there to make of the two relative unknown leads on this, the EU Onegin? The answer is quite a bit actually, but with a perplexed shrug of chagrin about what may have happened the past six years, to the two singers in question.

Irish soprano Orla Boylan, while less intense early on an actress than Elena Prokina (Vick/Davis), is the more girlish, homespun, and frequently most personably attractive of the two, and apart from a few moments, more clearly on pitch. Looking up her bio on the net, the mention of Renata Scotto throws up a red flag. Boylan, no doubt here however, is a smart and very shrewd girl, knowing to in a way self-critically replace a couple of uncomfortable pitches written in the closing duet to the Letter Scene with her nurse, with two of her own just slightly enough above the break to comfortably sing them in tune; she does so with maximum expressive impact. Whereas I do not endorse this practice, she still makes complete musical sense of the line in question.

Her Letter Scene, especially at the lyrical core of it, exudes a very attractive intimacy, redolent of Schubert, Schumann, with fine acting to match. The heartbreak of later scenes, and poise she exudes when meeting Onegin in Act Three, are all very palpable, and she handles everything in a great final scene with Glushchak with aplomb, and not intimidated in the least by how much the intensity of all proceedings has been turned up. Nuccia Focile on the Philips set (on cd) handles comparable challenges a little less well, with her tendency to constrict at the break to pull forth more sound above it (and which for her constantly threatens intonation), such a tendency to remind me directly of Scotto. She is suitably charming, though, for so much else less hard on such a light voice as hers.

Vladimir Glushchak is the handsome but equally ever self-conscious, reticent, introverted and at least seemingly to himself, prudent, sagacious Onegin. He (and also the Prince Gremin in Act Three) capitalizes very well on his comfort with the language he is singing. He also makes most flexible, almost always subtle use of his lean voice to comfortably meet all the vocal demands of his part. Here is an Onegin easily comparable to Thomas Allen on DGG, but the more specifically urbane, thus less cosmopolitan of the two.

Apart from a fleeting moment of questionable intonation, he yields nothing to any of the competition. In appearance on stage, he is a gaunt man, but never one to so unduly strain thoracic, neck muscles to indicate emotional intensity as with Dwayne Croft on a televised final scene opposite Catherine Malfitano once, and is often the temptation nowadays. He quickly establishes frisson with the Lensky in their moments of confrontation, to make both them, and also the moment on a bare, bleak, white sheet covered stage for the duel scene, where as curtain falls, he leans over the body of his former friend, very intense.

Let's see, hear more work of both Glushchak and Boylan, soon, the latter from Ireland again to also challenge the market hegemony of Ronan Tynan and gang, shameless about feeding at the public trough, with the offer of something so much better, honest, and substantial - no pun intended. One gets much enjoyment from watching her closely throughout this dvd. She, of course, brings out Gennady Rozhdestvensky, sparkle in his eye, for curtain calls at the end. One wishes that we could have seen at least a few glimpses of him during orchestral interludes.

The first scene of Act Three, following the scene of Lensky's death, is riskily staged quite macabre, Polonaise and onward, unlike any other seen on video. The highly snobbish air at the St Petersburg ball is most effectively seen a little under the cover of darkness. Bring on Michail Schelomianski as the safely complacent Prince Gremin, one to shrewdly enter in a wink or two to his lines about his living in the midst of a very stuffy court, as his lines in the middle section of his aria tell us. He sings all of it, the one moment of relaxation within an intense final act, very attractively. The Vick/Davis, especially for Act Three Scene One, and with the character of Onegin for the entirety of it, wallows in foppishness; Lehnhoff gives us the same thing in spades, but wisely limits it to Monsieur Triquet (couplets very aptly sung, acted by Thomas Morris) and the noir setting of the polonaise.

Some of the abstraction of the Lehnhoff production and a little slowness to find its pace at the start of it, may be off putting to a few viewers. As one more closely watches it, most everything after the first scene of it expresses a keen awareness of the music and dramatic potential of doing new, interesting things with the subject at hand. Paired with the authoritative, frequently probing and for second half intensely engaged baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky, I can not hesitate in giving this dvd a sound endorsement for what is, after at worst a tentative first 30 minutes of it, an Onegin mostly worthy of five stars.


4/5 I agree with stan z cole, however,....
  by
I must agree with the previous reviews about the dubbing, or remastering shortfalls. Frankly, those glaring problems prevent me from writing a review with 5 stars. If this DVD was a live opera performance, with no remastering or dubbing, I probably would give it more than 5 stars, if I could. Afterall, this of course Tchaikovsky and Onegin (Solti, too). Also the actresses protraying Olga and Tatyana make this DVD. I'm glad the actress protraying Olga isn't on a CD, because she is awesome looking. I never heard of her before. Tatyana is fine, but Olga is perfect. I'm not sure how any production team can get past the remastering/dubbing issue. This is my first Onegin on video or DVD and it will suffice. I made an audio tape of the Met broadcast from a few years ago (of course for my own use) and that was just about a perfect performance. (With as much money as I give the Met, I think I can tape a performance or two for myself!)