Three Strikes and You're Out, Gene.

Gordon Bitner as Eugene Onegin

Photo by Corey Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

I've now seen three different productions, with three different casts and conductors, of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and three times I have walked out scratching my head.  The opera is popular, beloved, widely performed inside and outside Russia, and yet it continues to leave me cold. 

I certainly understand it much better now than I did when I was younger: the typical infatuation of a teenager with a sophisticated older man, his turning her down (wisely, but badly), his years-later love for her, her maturity and desire to stay in her stable marriage though she still loves Onegin. There just won't be a "happy ending" here, not any more than in Tosca. And the music, really, is masterly, beautiful, well-put-together, autumnal. Tchaikovsky knew what he was doing.

Friends clued me in to why I haven't been wowed by the opera: a series of competent baritones singing Onegin who just aren't compelling enough to persuade me that Tatyana would be instantly infatuated. To name them: Anthony Michaels-Moore in 1997 (I do not think that I saw David Okerlund...), Russell Braun in 2004, and now Gordon Bintner.

I will own that it's possible that one issue is that for all of these performances, I was pretty far from the stage: in the balcony in 1997 and 2004, in the dress circle this year. But the singers playing Olga, Lensky, and Filipyevna came across loud and clear, vocally and emotionally, this year, and so I'm going to blame Michaels-Moore, Braun, and Bintner for smaller-than-life performances in a role that needs a big performance.

My various friends have also pointed me to readily available video performances with baritones who are know to me personally to be compelling: Dmitri Hvorostovsky, native speaker of Russian and a great singer in that language; Marius Kwiecien, magnificent all three times I saw him live; Peter Mattei, who is so compelling that he can steal the show as Count Almaviva in Nozze di Figaro, and as Amfortas. So I will check out one or the other of those, or maybe all three. The Met performance with Hvorostovsky is in the same Robert Carsen production we have in SF right now.

So you know what I think of Bintner. Evgenia Muraveva, like Bintner making her house debut, was similarly small in stature. I was not particularly convinced by her infatuation and she sounded wiry in the first two acts. She definitely sounded better in Act III, fuller-voiced, matching the character's maturity, and her whole style of movement definitely changed from "provincial country girl" to "sophisticated cosmopolitan rich lady." That change was impressive. But the earlier acts, not so much.

The real stars of the show, for me, were mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina, as Olga, and Evan LeRoy Johnson as Lensky. Whatever it is that you need to make an impression, they had it, in spades. Akhmetshina has got a beautiful, vibrant, easily-produced sound, and you know, I could say exactly the same thing about Johnson, who has a lovely lyric tenor. I was also convinced by their acting. (Looking at photos of Akhmetshina,  hmm, she looks a little like a dark-haired Karita Mattila.) And Ronnita Miller was a marvelous Filipyevna; can't we get her in a big, juicy role some time? She was a fine Erda, who has about fifteen minutes of stage time in the Ring, and she is great in this, and, well, give her a big role!

Aigul Akhmetshina as Olga

Photo by Corey Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

I understand that there've been mixed reactions to the Carsen production. This is a famous production; it was initially not all that popular at the Met, where it originated, but by the time the Met abandoned it, it had become a favorite. (Is this similar to Hans Neuenfeld's famous "rat" Lohengrin at Bayreuth, which went from being booed to getting a 20 minute standing o at its last performance, which I know because I was there, and yes, it was a great production.) So I was very curious about it.

Well, for me, it's a mixed bag. I think that the first act first scene, on a very bare stage with lots of leaves falling and drifting about, works perfectly well. The long second scene is in Tatyana's bedroom and there is some odd perspective there, with a door in the floor. Okay, so her bedroom is in the attic? Or something? And the second act, scene 1 at the ball, sure. It's not great, but it's okay. I will mention that Brenton Ryan, who is a terrific Eros in Antony and Cleopatra, seems miscast as Monsieur Triquet; the role doesn't sit quite right for him.

Evgenia Muraveva as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin

Letter scene, Act I

Photo by Corey Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

The most effective scene is surely act 2, scene 2, the duel between Lensky and Onegin, after Onegin flirts way too much with Olga and Lensky inexplicably, and foolishly, challenges him to a duel. (They are all teenagers, it seems.) The lighting is absolutely gorgeous and the staging just about perfect; you see the all of the action in silhouette, I think behind a scrim. It is magnificent: cold, grim, and passionate all at once, not to mention that Johnson is fantastic in this scene.

Eugene Onegin

Act II duel scene

Photo by Corey Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

The big BIG problem is the transition from Act II to Act III. This production runs the acts together, or maybe SFO decided to run them together? I could ask but I haven't. The duel takes place; Lensky dies at the back of the stage. Stagehands remove him, Onegin stands dead center as the lighting changes to something indoors and bright. And....dressers change Onegin from his dueling clothes into ballroom formal, all of this while the big polonaise that opens act III plays, but it's just three or four people on stage, Bintner and the dressers, and nobody is dancing.

Eugene Onegin

Act II duel scene

Photo by Corey Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

The last SFO production also had no dancing during this passage. Instead, it had the chorus (I guess?) all dressed up, with the women kneeling on the floor while the music played. I don't get it. It's dance music! Put dancing people on stage! I know you can do it!

The very last scene is fine: a nice chair, a bare stage, a couple of somewhat tortured people whose timing was way off. Maybe in another life they could have been happy, but not in this one.

Evgenia Muraveva as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin

Act III, scene 2

Photo by Corey Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

So, personal to San Francisco Opera: for this one, go bigtime in your casting. I can't help but think how great the young Anna Netrebko would have been in that 1997 production. Peter Mattei sang here just once, in 2005, and I know that it's a long trip from Sweden for him, but please. This opera needs him, or someone of his stature, even if they are not his height.

Elsewhere:

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle
• Janos Gereben, SFCV
• Opera Tattler
• Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box ("Love Me or Leaf Me" ahahaha)