I don’t know
much about Tchaikovsky, his music, or his “masterpiece opera” Eugene Onegin. I do, however, know a lot about Anna Netrebko, called by Scott Barnes in Opera News magazine, “…arguably, the
biggest international star the opera world has had since Luciano Pavarotti...” and
by Deutsche Grammophon recording company,“…the best- selling soprano of the 21st
Century…”
Anna Netrebko is
the superstar headlining The Metropolitan Opera season’s opening production of Eugene Onegin. Her
costars are baritone Mariusz Kwiecien in the title role and tenor Piotr Bezcala
in the role of Onegin’s best friend Lenski. Both of these men are fantastic singers and performers, not
to mention terribly attractive.
And it is these three artists on stage together that has drawn me
passionately to this particular opera, which I saw Live in HD last Saturday.
The surprise for
me is how much I like Tchaikovsky’s music and his story of love, desire, revenge,
jealousy, and heartbreak. In his
music, I feel all of the composer’s anguish and pain…and his lighter, joyful
moments, which come early in the opera, before it gets murky. I have to say that all of Tchaikovsky’s
music in this work is beautiful and evocative. Takes me right into the heart of what is happening to these
characters, which is a lot. For
me, Eugene—a lost, bored, and empty soul—is not the star of the
show. However, it is the effect he
has on other characters that drives the plot.
The star of the
show is Tatiana. The range of
emotion that Tchaikovsky’s Tatiana experiences gives Anna Netrebko—a compelling
actress of much depth, breadth, and force—a role to chew on. And she does. She inhabits this part so fully that I cannot separate the superstar
from the person she is playing.
Shy, introspective, living in a world of literature and dreams at the beginning,
after meeting Onegin Tatiana is thunderstruck and whispers to herself, “He is
the one.” Finally, she has fallen in love--madly. The much-talked
about Letter Scene, where Tatiana composes a missive to be hand-delivered to
Onegin declaring her love, is a tour de force: lyrically, musically,
dramatically. It goes on for some
time. I never take my eyes, ears,
or attention from Anna Netrebko as she visibly, viscerally becomes everything the composer
expresses. And she tears down the
house! Almost literally. Her rich, clear, impassioned and
soaring voice metamorphoses into one that is restrained, reflective and tender
with uncertainty—and back again. Her singing and acting are so joined in the
heart that I am now in her, feeling what she feels with such vibrancy that I do
not want to come out. Tatiana is
so spent by her passionate trip on the emotional roller coaster of love that after
the final note she collapses on her back onto the floor of the room. And the audience in The Met Opera House
goes wild jumping to their feet and applauding hard, loud, and long, shouting,
“Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!,” for minutes and minutes. Anna is lying still on the floor. Eventually, clapping and Bravo-ing are no longer enough to
express our ardor and the audience screams, “An-na! An-na! An-na!”
and we go on like this for minutes and minutes and minutes. Anna is still lying on the floor. At some point—how does she decide when?—Anna
Netrebko begins softly and tenderly to sing again—motionless on her back, on the floor—the
most expressive, beautiful, clear, pure, openhearted note I have ever heard. All this is why Opera News’s September 2013 cover story
of Netrebko is titled:
"The Age Of Anna
They Don’t Call It
Electricity Anymore.
They Call It Netrebko.”
This production
of Eugene Onegin has been one of the
greatest musical and dramatic experiences of my life. I am thrilled to know that now it is in me for eternity!
