Scene from 'Eugene Onegin' featuring Anna Netrebko as Tatiana and Mariusz Kwiecien as Eugene Onegin, Photo by Lee Bromfield
The 2013-2014 season of the Metropolitan Opera opened on the 23rd of September with a luxurious production of Eugene Onegin featuring the acclaimed baritone Mariusz Kwiecień as Onegin, and with Piotr Beczała as Lenski to lend a double touch of Polish intensity to the Russian classic.
While tenor Piotr Beczała and Mariusz Kwiecień hardly lack international recognition, opening the Met's fall season alongside soprano Anna Netrebko and conductor Valery Gergiev in one of that vaunted company's most lavish production is nevertheless an ennoblement for any opera star.
Deborah Warner, the production's director, emphasized that her cast possess not only incredible voices, but are outstanding actors, all of which she believes will translate into an exceptional rendering of Tchaikovsky’s opera:
I have very great singers at the Met and very great actors in those singers [...] I think if you get this right, it’s an overwhelming evening, and it’s hard to say why. It’s just life; life is overwhelming. Passions are overwhelming. What matters is that we absolutely affect the heart of the audience.
Kwiecień and Beczała are no strangers to the overwhelming forces of life and passion. Kwiecień starred in three Met productions in 2012-2013: Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Giovanni and The Elixir of Love. Beczała is equally in demand. In an interview with The Examiner, the tenor speaks of having "operatic marathons", for example in February 2009, when he played in four Met productions in a mere seven days. He adds that he would gladly perform Polish operas more frequently, especially those of Szymanowski and Moniuszko:
Mariusz Kwiecień and I will do Szymanowski’s King Roger in 2018 in Chicago. It would be amazing if the Met were brave enough to mount this work. Mariusz has already portrayed the title role, and [the role of] Roxana would be perfect for Anna Netrebko.
The premiere of Eugene Onegin and the gala season opening was held on the 23rd of September at the Metropolitan Opera in a politically charged atmosphere. An online petition in August had requested that Netrebko and Gergiev be withdrawn from the production to protest Russian President Putin’s harsh stance against homosexuality. The petition had also requested that the production be dedicated to the LGBT community. Peter Gelb, the Met general manager, stated that the Met stood for human rights but that getting involved in the conflict would overstep an art institution’s mandate.
Reviews unanimously lauded Beczała for his performance. The NY Daily News writes that 'his performance was velvety and robust — and not at all cloudy.' Kwiecień was also warmly praised, although with a few comments on glitches during his opening performance.
Anthony Tommasini, in a review for The New York Times writes that:
Mr. Beczala’s muscular, youthful tenor voice is ideal for Lenski. He brings out the charming goofiness of this young man’s love for the smitten Olga, until he turns hothead when he sees Onegin dancing seductively with her and challenges him to a fateful duel. Mr. Kwiecien’s Onegin is a handsome and entitled man who takes all that for granted. His voice, while dark and virile, did not on this night have as much innate vocal charisma as Ms. Netrebko’s or Mr. Beczala’s. Still, Mr. Kwiecien’s singing is volatile and exciting.
Similarly, Anne Midgette of the Washington Post postulated that:
A high point was Piotr Beczala as a bright, ardent Lenski, debonair and high-strung and with a lovely tenor. Kwecien was convincingly youthful and compact as Onegin, with a sound more pliable than is his wont; though there were a couple of infelicitous moments in the first act, including an attempt at a gentle high note that came out like a bleat at the end of his ariso
The performance will also be available in cinemas all over the world as part of The Met: Live in HD series. The on-screen version of the performance will first be shown on the 5th of October.
Sources: press materials, The Examiner, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NY Daily News, edited by LB, 23/09/2013