Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin ****
The Royal Opera, 19th December 2015
The question I’d longed to ask Kasper Holten when his 2013 Royal Opera staging of Eugene Onegin opened was: if you’d had a younger soprano cast as Tatyana, would you have still gone down the “dancing doubles” route? Starting the action with the Act III Tatyana (Princess Gremina) recalling her teenage infatuation with Onegin, their younger selves represented by two dancers, Holten cast the opera as a series of reflections and past regrets. Would a younger soprano blur Holten’s vision? With Nicole Car, who triumphed in this staging in Sydney, taking on the role in this revival, we found out.
Emily Ranford and Nicole Car (Tatyana)
© ROH | Bill Cooper
Read the full review on Bachtrack.