Cancel Russian culture? Well, the Met is playing Eugene Onegin…
NewsOf all Vladimir Putin’s wanton lies, the claim that Russian culture is being cancelled in the West is patently ridiculous.
As Zachary Woolfe writes in the New York Times: ‘The names of Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff are being removed from playbills,” President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said on television on Friday.
‘Never mind that “Eugene Onegin” opened at the Met that evening, as the New York Philharmonic was playing Shostakovich across the street. And later this week the Philharmonic performs three concerts of Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, with Rimsky-Korsakov and yet more Rachmaninoff the week after….’
Here’s Rick Perdian’s account in New York Classical Review: There was something spectacular in the Metropolitan Opera’s season premiere of Eugene Onegin: Piotr Beczała’s sensational singing in his Act II aria. Beczała gave voice to Lenski’s memories of his carefree youth as he awaits for Onegin to arrive for their fatal duel in beautiful, molten tone, coupled with a passionate, yet subtle, outpouring of emotion. This exceptional artist, at the pinnacle of his powers, transformed Lenski’s aria into an unforgettable moment.
Up to that point, the performance had been on a low simmer. Tchaikovsky, himself, didn’t think Pushkin’s novel had the strongest plot — a egotistical cad rejects a naive country girl, kills his best friend in a duel, and is left in despair when years later, the girl, now an alluring woman married to a wealthy prince, acknowledges her love for him, but rejects him.The story did inspire him, however, to compose some wonderful music.
Yet the dramatic inertness of the opening scenes was due to Ailyn Pérez’s Tatiana, who was singing the role for the first time. Tatiana is described as shy, but Pérez made her into an introvert, who was little more than a cypher.
Read on here.
image: Ailyn Pérez and Igor Golovatenko in Onegin. photo: Marty Sohl/Met Opera
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