PARIS, FRANCE – OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS – TCHAIKOVSKY: EUGENE ONEGIN

Semyon Bychkov, conductor
The Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus

CAST
Boris Pinkhasovich Eugene Onegin
Ruzan Mantashyan – Tatiana
Bogdan Volkov – Lensky
Marvic Monreal – Olga
Dmitry Belosselskiy – Prince Gremin
Susan Graham – Madame Larina
Elena Zaremba – Filipyevna
Peter Bronder – Monsieur Triquet
Amin Ahangaran – Zaretsky
Mikhail Silantev – Captain

CREATIVE TEAM
Ralph Fiennes – Director
Michael Levine – Set design
Annemarie Woods – Costume design
Alessandro Carletti – Lighting design
Sophie Laplane – Choreography
Kim Brandstrup – Artistic collaboration
Ching-Lien Wu Chorus master

VENUE NOTE:
“Eugene Onegin tells a love story that doesn’t work”. This is how Ralph Fiennes sums up the plot of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s opera, inspired by Pushkin’s work. A jaded young dandy, Onegin sets shy Tatiana on fire at first sight. Overcoming her reticence, she writes him a passionate love letter.

Alas, he brutally refuses, giving her a lecture on morality. However, years later, after a duel, he falls in love with the young woman who is now Prince Gremin’s wife. Will she yield to his advances?

Fascinated by Russian culture and attuned to the dramatic intensity of Tchaikovsky’s music, Ralph Fiennes is directing his first opera. If he chooses to use pictorial simplicity to evoke the Russian countryside or a ballroom, it is all the better to emphasise the emotions of the characters, as complex as they are modern.