The Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of Live in HD live performances in local movie theaters continues Saturday May 2 at noon with the revival of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.
This riveting tale of love, jealousy and personal regret features an all-star cast featuring Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian as Tatiana, the impoverished love interest of the privileged nobleman Eugene Onegin sung with robust authority by Ukrainian baritone Iurii Samoilov.
Directed by two-time Laurence Olivier Award-winner and Tony Award-nominated, British Opera and theater director
Deborah Warner, this is a production that defines what Grand Opera is all about.
The singing is absolutely luxurious. If the sparse sets appear to be somewhat lacking, it is of no consequence. Attention is best directed to the business at hand- some terrific dramatic singing by a cast of complete professionals of the highest caliber. You don’t have to be an opera lover to appreciate a brilliant performance executed with the utmost professionalism.
This performance of Onegin brings Tchaikovsky’s elaborate score to life and infuses the story with an immediacy that is at once captivating and chillingly prescient as to the perilous times in which we now live.
Onegin is a story of jealousy, revenge and excess all pushed to the precipe. It is both a warning and an object lesson that will resonate far beyond the final curtain. For information visit metopera.org.
