Eugene Onegin
Shilovsky and Tchaikovsky, after Pushkin
Opera North, with Opera Queensland and Irish National Opera
Grand Theatre, Leeds
October 9, 16, 22, 24, 29, 2026: 3 hrs 5 mins
(Also Newcastle Theatre Royal, November 7; Lowry Salford, November 13)
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is based on Pushkin’s 19th century verse-novel about a Byronic character called Yevgeny Onyegin. Hardly a conventional Romantic hero, he’s cynical and world-weary, has multiple amorous encounters and fights a duel in which he kills his best friend, Lensky.
The opera storyline is in some ways more about Tatyana Larina, a shy young country girl he manages to inflame with passion. Their futures intersect years after he has loftily spurned her avowal, but by the time he realises he has missed the one real chance of love in his life, it’s too late - she has married a wealthy aristocrat and become a society lady. Even then, as they encounter each other again at a ball, for a few moments they contemplate the possibility of rediscovering the ardour of youth. She is torn between the ties of marriage and the yearnings of her younger self, but ultimately decides on the former.
The scenario – set first among middle-class country folk visited by smart young men from the city, and later in a princely palace – seems inescapably bound to a 19th century social background. But this production, directed by Opera Queensland’s Patrick Nolan, puts it into the later part of the 20th, still in Russia but in the eras of Brezhnev, Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
First we see the Soviet era of the 1980 Summer Olympics (the people of a small community gather in their concrete and timber gymnasium to prepare for their role in the ceremony), moving on to the era of Perestroika under Gorbachev for Act Two, and ending in the post-Communist Yeltsin-and-oligarchs period.
Any reconfiguration of this kind has to bring some rewards to be worth it, but in this case I’m not sure it does. One substantial set (design by Leslie Travers) remains the location throughout, providing the backdrop for the social gatherings in all three eras, its visible light bulb arrangements a symbol of successive modernisations. The costumes, designed by Elizabeth Gadsby, are the most vivid depiction of social change – but to what purpose?
But the musical quality is superb. The score sounds magnificent under Opera North music director Garry Walker: alive with energy and passion, intense and rhythmically vigorous in the folksong tunes and dance numbers, tender and heartfelt in the love scenes.
Verity Wingate sings Tatyana with affecting purity and her letter scene ends with a combination of delicacy and quiet desperation. John Brancy (Onegin) is a singer of depth and refinement, alert to the nuances of his role and the male insecurity beneath his caddishness. Jingwen Cai as Olga, Tatyana’s sister, has a voice unusually (and rewardingly) rich in its lower register, and Caspar Singh (seen in the title role of ENO’s Albert Herring recently in London and Manchester) has a combination of lyrical purity and vocal strength that fits well with his portrayal of Lensky. All four are making their Opera North debuts, with excellent supporting roles sung by members of the Chorus of Opera North and by Joshua Bloom as Prince Gremin (he sang the role at Buxton International Festival in 2019).
And though this may not be Jane Austen’s world, there is dancing. Tchaikovsky gives us a waltz, a snatch of mazurka and a wonderful polonaise, and choreographer Maxine Braham invents intriguing variants on what social dancing might have looked like in the different time-frames. The music and dancing hardly match, but the Opera North performers give them their all.
More info and tickets here
