Robert Carsen’s 1997 production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin got another outing at the Canadian Opera Company on Friday, with revival direction by Peter McLintock. In many ways it’s worn remarkably well and is still very beautiful to look at with its sense of space and its most effective use of lighting. I noticed too how careful the costume design is. There’s a real and historically accurate contrast between the ball gowns and uniforms in the country ball in Act 2 and the much grander outfits on display at the Gremins’ palace. That said, in some ways it does feel a bit “last century”: we have become unused to pauses between scenes, especially where it’s just a matter of shifting a few chairs. The very 1990s Carsen feel is strong too: Les Boréades meets Semele meets Dialogues des Carmélites, chairs, sweeping up snow/leaves, the chorus as a moving scenery element.
What mostly struck me this time though is how the minimalist nature of the production puts enormous pressure on the singer playing Onegin to create a credible psychological arc for the, on the face of it, rather improbable one Pushkin gives the character. Dmitri Hvorostovsky at the Met managed it, as did Gordon Bintner in COC’s 2018 production. I wasn’t convinced that Andrii Kymach, although he sang extremely well, managed it. I could find no real motivation for his spiteful behaviour in Act 2 and the transition to Act 3, where he comes straight from the duel to be dressed for the Gremins’ ball, completely lacked the sense of menace that Bintner created. Which leaves one completely at a loss as to how or why the stiff, unyielding character of the first two acts suddenly transforms into a man in passionate despair at the end.