Movie DVD Store (UK) - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Hvorostovsky, Vargas, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007]

	List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £19.97 Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Manufacturer: Decca (Universal Classics) Starring: Renee Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Ramon Vargas, Valery Gergiev, Elena Zaremba Directed By: Robert Carsen
Average Customer Rating:
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Audience Rating: Exempt Binding: DVD EAN: 0044007432488 Format: Box set Label: Decca (Universal Classics) Manufacturer: Decca (Universal Classics) Number Of Discs: 2 Number Of Items: 2 Publisher: Decca (Universal Classics) Region Code: 0 Release Date: 2008-02-04 Running Time: 112 Studio: Decca (Universal Classics) Theatrical Release Date: 2007
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Editorial Reviews:
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Great performance but too minimalist for me. Comment: It is hard to add much to what has already been written but after watching this dvd last night I felt that I had to say something. I was initially taken aback by the minmalist staging. I gradually got used to it but never really liked it. The singing was superb with not a weak performance anywhere and Horostovsky certainly had the arrogant presence but why he had to do a striptease I do not know as it seemed to add nothing to the plot. Does anyone know why Gergeiev played the polonaise at such an incredible pace, again I can't see how it helped the story. Having said all that it won't be long before I hire it again. Customer Rating: Summary: Great performance undermined by staging Comment: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Hvorostovsky, Vargas, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007] For me the great qualities of this performance conducted by Valery Gergiev are completely undermined by the staging. As an opera lover that welcomes modern interpretations (I appreciate the majority of the Zagrosek "Ring") this is just plain misguided. The costumes are traditional and the sumptuous ball gowns are so enormous the dresses appear to be wearing the singers, nevertheless a joy to behold. The stage set is an unchanging bare cube made up of three panels and augmented by the odd piece of essential furniture for each scene, and in the first act with a thick layer of (plastic?) autumn leaves on the floor. This barren monotonous setting conflicts with the warmth of the costumes, the drama, it inhibits any use of lighting for atmosphere (you cannot create shadows without forms to create them) alienating the performance and the viewer in a cold unwelcoming environment. The Meet is often criticised for its unimaginative traditional staging, but this is definitely not the way to modernise. Customer Rating: Summary: A glorious, intense Onegin - Fleming & Hvorostovsky triumph Comment: This is a quite lovely DVD that rightly places Onegin at the heart of the opera, when frequently the whole focus is on Tatiana. While the latter is understandable given the importance of the Letter Scene to the drama of the work - and it was the musical kernel around which the recurring motifs of the opera are based - by focussing so centrally on Onegin himself the final scenes pack a real punch. The staging is minimalist, the action taking place within the huge white cube of the bare Metropolitan stage, with no scenery. The different scenes are picked out by the simple use of a few judicious pieces of stage furniture - a single table for the opening scene in the Larin's garden, a bed and bureau for Tatiana's room and so on - and the use of sometimes quite sumptuous costumes. This gives the whole production a powerful simplicity and directness, and focuses attention on the musical performance of the orchestra and singers. The whole meaning of the opera has to be carried by the main characters' acting ability - which is hugely impressive. The focus on Onegin begins with the overture. In one of those exquisite images that occur throughout this production, Onegin appears alone and somehow quite small in a spot lit chair, on an empty stage covered with autumnal leaves, wistfully reading an old letter. The air is suddenly filled with a shower of dead leaves: a beautiful and evocative start brilliantly setting out the nostalgic regret that so powerfully drives Onegin's actions in the final scenes. The leaves will cover the stage throughout the first act. Renée Fleming is hardly the adolescent of the libretto, but from the start has the distant air of a girl infatuated with the heroic world of the romantic novel and detached from the mundane realities of the life she actually leads. Her Letter Scene captures exceptionally well the impulsive ardour and mad impetuosity brought on by the encounter with Onegin. It's joyful to behold. And she embodies completely her transformed persona as a woman of substance and high social status at the end of the opera. Dmitri Hvorostovsky is an unsurpassed Onegin. Vocally - like Fleming - he is on top form, and, like her, totally lives the full range of his character's development, from the suave, emotionally cold and patronisingly self-assured young land-owner (he will later refer self-critically to his self-righteous moralising of the innocent young Tatiana), to the anguished, semi-ostracised, troubled man on the edges of "society", aimless and depressed since killing his best friend. His acting in the role reversal in the last scenes of the opera, with his almost adolescent love-struck look as he is introduced to the new Tatiana, and the repeat of Tatiana's Letter Scene melody - with variations on many of the same words - is completely believable and, I found, deeply moving. And here was a revelation for me. I have always thought of "Eugene Onegin" as an opera with not much action that simply ends with the surviving characters just older, wiser and sadder. Whilst in some ways that's still true, the sheer passionate desperation of both Onegin and Tatiana, clinging to each other almost in ecstasy in the final scene, carries a dramatic weight and intense emotional but unfulfillable desire that is painful to watch, gut-wrenching, and leaves us bereft for Onegin, finally left alone on his spot lit chair, in the middle of the empty stage. The narrative has turned full circle. Within the apparently simplest of stagings some nice touches and a sensitive use of lighting changes cleverly pick out resonant details. Minimalism at the Met is a new experience for me - and a welcome one. The sometimes obsessive attention to 'authenticity' and tradition at the Met can lead to productions that are fusty, dull and look more like museum pieces than a living operatic tradition. Producer Robert Carsen knows how to get the greatest meaning out of the simplest gesture or apposite stage image. The mismatched chairs penning the guests into a just-too-small dance floor at Tatiana's birthday ball, for instance, suggest a certain "genteel poverty" in the Larin household, and a certain provincialism in the women's dresses (Onegin later refers to Tatiana's "humble background which I scorned", in the back of beyond) and possibly the imprisoning constraints of a narrow "polite society". The duel is a masterpiece of economic stagecraft: on an entirely empty stage, all the protagonists dressed in sombre black, Onegin and Lenski reach out towards one another as though longing to re-connect and return to their earlier friendship, but unable to close the breach in their relationship. Perspective makes them appear physically close but emotionally and socially the breach is too wide because of the conventions of social "honour" that Lenski has invoked and that they are now obliged to follow inexorably, despite their wishes. The death of Lenski and Onegin's dismay at what he has done is enacted in silhouette. (I have little sympathy for the character of Lenski, but Ramón Vargas sings his great aria with real beauty and anxious emotion - drawing enthusiastic and extended applause from the Met audience. And the production does strongly suggest that Onegin *could have* defused the situation at the ball, but didn't.) The immediate transition to a St Petersburg ballroom, with Onegin centre stage being dressed in formal attire by six domestic servants during the Polonaise is a brilliant idea, emphasising the artifice behind "society" and the true status of Onegin within that world, and allowing for a seamless shift to Act III and Onegin's disaffected narrative. This is a magnificent DVD. Gergiev gets sumptuous playing, emotional, nuanced and finely detailed from the Met Orchestra - particularly, for me, the woodwind which Tchaikovsky uses so tellingly to contribute so much to the beauty and emotion of this score. (The bonuses include a brief but fascinating piece on Gergiev rehearsing this production.) In addition to the leading roles, all the smaller parts are taken exceptionally well. Special praise must go to Svetlana Volkova as Madame Larina, who sets the tone of a woman's fate in this culture: "Heaven gave us habit in place of happinness", a moto that will apply to her daughter too; Elena Zaremba for an engaging Olga; Larissa Shevchenko, an especially touching Filippyevna, salt of the earth as Tatiana's old nurse; and Sergei Aleksashkin, who delivers a powerful, resonant and affecting aria as Prince Gremin. There are optional subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Chinese. This is an exceptionally strong "Onegin" - my favourite on DVD by some way - in a deceptively "simple" staging, beautifully directed for film by the late, great Brian Large. This is near enough a definitive production of Onegin, one that will be difficult to improve on (except for those who need a more traditional staging) and I strongly recommend it. Customer Rating: Summary: Spell binding performance Comment: I received my DVD of Eugene Onegin (filmed live at the New York Metropolitan Opera) about a week ago and already have played it at least 4 times. The whole opera is carried along by the beautiful melodic music, including of course the uplifting waltz and the exuberant Polonaise. Sung in Russian it has subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Chinese. Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky is suitably suave and arrogant as Onegin. American soprano Renée Fleming is a very pretty and effective Tatiana and Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas is in good strong voice as Lenski (I kept being reminded of his singing as Don Carlos from Vienna 2004). Russian Valery Gergiev conducts the Met Opera Orchestra very artistically without a baton and with excellent control. My only quibble is that the English subtitles suffer from American spelling. Apart from that it is spell binding. All that unrequited love.... Over 2 hours long and it seems to pass in minutes! Very highly recommended. Customer Rating: Summary: superb tchaikovsy Comment: At long last received my copy of this excellent production of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece. What can I say? Wonderful singing performances; wonderful music, played and interpreted beautifully by Gergiev. I noticed that on the American reviews(Amazon.com)that the only criticism was the minimalist stage settings. For me (and other reviewers agree)the barren stage sets actually enhance the intensity of the story and music. Superb!, I highly recommend this DVD. More Reviews