[Met Performance] CID:251070



Eugene Onegin
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, October 15, 1977

Debut : Isola Jones, Ray Diffen




Eugene Onegin (39)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | Konstantin ?ilovski/Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin
Sherrill Milnes

Tatiana
Teresa Zylis-Gara

Lensky
Nicolai Gedda

Olga
Isola Jones [Debut]

Prince Gremin
Martti Talvela

Larina
Jean Kraft

Filippyevna
Batyah Godfrey Ben-David

Triquet
Andrea Velis

Captain
Richard Best

Zaretsky
Andrij Dobriansky


Conductor
James Levine


Set Designer
Rolf G?rard

Costume Designer
Ray Diffen [Debut]

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Choreographer
Norbert Vesak

Stage Director
Bodo Igesz





This was the first performance at the Met of Eugene Onegin in Russian. Previous performances had been in Italian or English.
Eugene Onegin received seven performances this season.

Review 1:

Review of Mike Sullivan of the Associated Press

'Onegin' Returns to Met Opera

NEW YORK - Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" returned to the Metropolitan Opera after an absence of 13 years Saturday night, unfolding a tale of typically Slavic suffering set to some of the composer's most beautiful melodies. Well-sung by a deluxe international cast, the performance illustrated why the opera deserves hearing - but outside of Russia - is never going to be a staple of the repertory.

The plot, adapted front Pushkin's poem of the same name, is a variation on the boy-meets-girl theme. Here, girl meets boy, boy rejects girl, girl marries wealthy nobleman, boy decides he loves her after all, but girl now rejects him. There's also a duel in which boy lulls girl's sister's fianc?, just so everybody can be unhappy. All this is set to sensitive, lyrical music, but it simply doesn't pack the theatrical punch that Verdi and Puccini, for example, bring to many equally silly plots.

As the heroine, Tatyana, and the title character she loves, Polish soprano Teresa Zylis-Gara and American baritone Sherrill Milnes sang smoothly, though both had occasional pitch problems on their high notes. Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda was outstanding as Lenski, who loses the duel, and his sweetheart, Olga, was well-portrayed by American mezzo-soprano Isola Jones, who was making her Met debut.

Having the great Finnish bass Martti Talvela sing Prince Gremin's one aria was a luxury on the order of getting Yankee skipper Billy Martin to coach your son's Little League team.

Met music director James Levine conducted lightly, bringing out the delicacy in Tchaikovsky's orchestrations without letting the music sink into the self-pitying emotion to which the composer was subject.



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