Eugene Onegin - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The National Theatre

Premiere: March 20, 2009

Musical preparation and conductor: John Fiore
Director: Andrei Serban
Stage design and costumes: Adriana Grand
Chorus master: Pavel Vaněk
Choreography: Petr Tyc
Dramaturgy: Ondřej Hučín

Eugene Onegin: Roman Janál / Vladimír Chmelo
Larina: Galia Ibragimova / Jitka Svobodová
Tatjana: Wioletta Chodowicz / Dana Burešová
Olga: Hannah Esther Minutillo / Kateřina Jalovcová
Filipjevna: Yvona Škvárová / Lenka Šmídová
Vladimir Lenski: Aleš Briscein / Valentin Prolat
Gremin: Miloslav Podskalský / Zdeněk Plech
Zaretsky: František Zahradníček / Aleš Hendrych
Triquet: Jaroslav Březina / Václav Lemberk
Guillot: Michal Holánek
Choir-leader: Petr Frýbert / Václav Hajduch
Trifon Petrovic: Pavel Novák / Tomáš Jindra

Orchestra, Choir and Ballet of the National Theatre Opera.

The two most celebrated Tchaikovsky operas, Eugene Onegin (1879) and The Queen of Spades (1890), originated to the motifs of very intimately toned Pushkin works, replete with subtle details and splendid narrative techniques. A romantic opera must, however, of necessity suppress much of this in favour of its own qualities. Yet this on no account can be taken to mean that the only reason for the frequent returns of Tchaikovsky’s Onegin to the stage is the immense popularity on the part of the audience of several highlights of this opera – be it Tatiana’s excited letter aria, Lensky’s melancholic aria or Prince Gremin’s celebrated aria on love that “flourishes at every age”. Tchaikovsky deliberately did not designate his work as “opera”, but “lyrical scenes”. Concealed beneath the seeming banality of the story of Tatiana’s unrequited love for Onegin is the eternal theme of human loneliness, the conflict between individuality and uniformity, ideals and resignation. All this is imbued with Tchaikovsky’s brilliant, torrential and poignant music. The outstanding American conductor John Fiore will once again conduct the National Theatre Orchestra. The stage direction has been undertaken by Andrei Serban, a world-famous Romanian-American theatre-maker.

The opera is staged in Russian original version and Czech and English surtitles are used in the performance.

Running time: 3 hours 15 minutes