Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin DVD Glyndebourne Festival Opera / Directed by Graham Vick / Conducted by Andrew Davis / Elena Prokina, Martin Thompson, Louise Winter, Yvonne Minton / NVC Arts

UPC 0706301401422

MADE IN EU

REGION 2 PAL DVD

AUDIO: Russian 2.0,

SUBTITLES: English, Italian, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese

TOTAL RUNTIME: 141 MINUTES

English Summary:

Andrew Davis' production of Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin' was premiered and recorded in the first season of Glyndebourne's new opera house in 1994. Pushkin's tale of love, tragedy and rejection is set against an acutely observed back-drop of Russian society, with spectacular choruses and dances. 

Graham Vick's production of Onegin, conducted by Andrew Davis, was one of Glyndebourne's most memorable achievements of the past 20 years. It was a staging with a wealth of psychological perceptions and beautifully rendered dramatic imagery, all held within the spare framework of Richard Hudson's designs, which still stand up superbly well under the close scrutiny of this video recording taken from performances in 1994.

Elena Prokina's extraordinary performance as Tatyana is the beating heart of the show. Prokina, always a compelling stage animal, was then at the height of her vocal powers, and the way she charts her character's transformation from impulsive adolescent in the first act to society wife and hostess in the last is perfectly judged. Her final meeting with Onegin (a richly complex performance by Wojciech Drabowicz) does not miss any of the intense hopelessness of opportunity lost.

Martin Thompson's forlorn Lensky is a very touching portrayal, too, in a production that recognises that there are ultimately no good or bad characters in this story - just intensely human ones, caught in a maelstrom of events from which none of them can escape.

Composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Director Graham Vick

Conductor Andrew Davis

Cast

Elena Prokina

Wohciech Drabowicz

Martin Thompson

Louise Winter

Yvonne Minton

Ludmilla Filatova

Frode Olsen

The Glyndebourne Chorus

London Philharmonic Orchestra