Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.In creating an opera out of Pushkin’s revered verse novel Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky said he had been attracted by the “everyday, simple, universally human emotions”. He shied away from a premiere in a major opera house, citing the lavish sets and stale routine that he saw in most. There can be no worry about that here. In the Royal Opera’s new production in London, director Ted Huffman has gone for minimalism at its most extreme. For much of the evening there is nothing on the stage except for two hard-backed chairs, while a cloud of strangely immobile dry ice hangs in the air.There can be pluses and minuses to this approach, but the minuses have won. Intimacy, so important in this opera, cannot be found on such a wide, bare stage and Huffman compounds that by having characters join in scenes where they do not belong. Tatyana dictates her letter — surely one of the most private moments in opera — to her sister. Then both of them show up uninvited for the duel at dawn.The production’s updating is arguably less of a problem. Although Tchaikovsky was adamant that Eugene Onegin had to be set in 1820s Russia, these “everyday” people can exist in almost any period or place, the art deco chandeliers and casual, modern clothing here suggesting a time closer to the mid-20th century.The main plus is that the Royal Opera has cast Pushkin’s young characters to the life. Kristina Mkhitaryan’s Tatyana credibly plays the naive teenager at the start and grows with elegance into the Prince’s wife in the closing scenes. Her voice is on the bright, hard side, but more than anybody else she fills this bare stage with feeling. The hushed intensity she brings to the heart of the letter scene is the high point of the performance.Her Onegin is Gordon Bintner, who is tall enough to look down superciliously on everybody else and has mastered the most overbearing of loping gaits. As Onegin pointedly does not kill Lensky in this production, he comes across a touch more sympathetic after the duel scene. Bintner fields a lyrical baritone with beauty and resonance, and sings splendidly in the aria, but is not so imposing vocally elsewhere.Liparit Avetisyan, familiar from Verdi roles with the Royal Opera, projects well as Lensky. Avery Amereau is the delightful Olga, not too heavy of voice, and Alison Kettlewell and Rhonda Browne are well contrasted as Madame Larina and Filipyevna. Brindley Sherratt took over at the 11th hour as Prince Gremin. Christophe Mortagne brings authentic French tones to Monsieur Triquet, but we did not need his clown alter ego haunting the action.There have been a number of Royal Opera productions on an empty stage in recent years and their open acoustics can make life difficult for the singers. Huffman, happily, has taken note and makes sure they are at the front of the stage for anything important. This is helpful, as conductor Henrik Nánási does not spare the decibels, pushing pacing and passion to the limit.There is a strange disjunct here. What we see is colourless, emotionally chill. What we hear from the orchestra is overwrought. Between the two, the touching story of Pushkin and Tchaikovsky is struggling to come together.★★★☆☆To October 14, rbo.org.uk
