Eugene Onegin

Published Thursday 22 May 2008 at 12:35 by George Hall

Graham Vick’s 1994 production of Tchaikovsky’s lyric scenes based on Pushkin’s story of two people who offer each other love at the wrong time returns to Glyndebourne revived by Ron Howell and Jacopo Spirei. Once again the result is a notable success. Richard Hudson’s sets are spare but strikingly atmospheric, evoking early 19th century rural Russia and St Petersburg with the lightest of touches.

A mainly young central cast presents the drama with concentrated perception. Though Maria Kovalevska is unusually contained as Tatyana, she sings every note with conviction and partners Ales Jenis’ sombre Onegin with skill. He shows the sophisticated but emotionally empty hero’s flaws in a performance that is imaginatively acted, suggesting that his veneer of command and self-control is only skin deep.

As the poet Lensky, Massimo Giordano delivers an outstanding account of his famous aria just before the fatal duel, a feat equalled by Mikhail Schelomianski as Prince Gremin, whose brief appearance in the final act is another highlight of superior vocalism at the service of the drama. Ably sketched in are the smaller roles - Adrian Thompson as an amiably pompous Monsieur Triquet, Marie McLaughlin as the concerned Madame Larina and Kathleen Wilkinson as Tatyana’s aged nurse.

The score comes over powerfully, although conductor Vladimir Jurowski’s devoted attention to every last subtle detail in Tchaikovsky’s writing does occasionally impede its sheer dynamism and excitement. But it’s immaculately played by the London Philharmonic.