Eugene Onegin at the Zürich Opera House
Music Direction Gianandrea Noseda Producer Barrie Kosky Tatyana Ekaterina Sannikova Onegin Igor Golovatenko Lensky Benjamin Bernheim Gremin Vitalij Kowaljow | 24.02.2023
So, I finally got around to writing about my experience seeing Eugene Onegin at the Zürich Opera House. Let's get into it!
The show started promptly at 7 pm, but we were allowed to enter the auditorium at 6 pm. Before the performance, there was a 15-minute introduction of the opera. However, since I'm not fluent in German, I could only understand about 80% of it.
The production, directed by Barrie Kosky, was set in an "idyllic forest" and remained more or less the same throughout the entire opera. The stage was a rotating turf surrounded by fake trees. The only time there was an additional set was during the Gremin’s palace scene, but it was dismantled during Onegin’s arioso, creating a distraction for the audience (or at least for me).
I initially didn't understand the director's creative directions, particularly the symbolism of the jam jar that appeared hold significant meaning, until I read this review that shed some light on it.
To my untrained ears, the performers were vocally exceptional. The auditorium was relatively small, and their voices reached even the farthest seat. Each performer excelled in their respective arias, but I was particularly impressed by Kowaljow’s rendition of Gremin’s “All men surrender to Love's power” aria, which I specifically wrote on my note as being sung “perfectly”. Sannikova and Golovatenko shared a believable chemistry, which is an crucial element of playing Tatyana and Onegin. Bernheim, who was on his home turf *ba dum tss*, received the loudest and longest cheers from the audience, which was so well-deserved.
Here are some notable moments of this production:
The whole scene of Olga/Lesky duet was unfortunately completely blocked from my view. However, there was a cute moment when those two were singing, Onegin and Tatyana were busy flirting with each other.
During the party scene, Onegin was jokingly massaging Lensky’s shoulders when he was being sulky. I assumed this was a character choice made by Golovatenko. It was quite funny.
The pre-duel scene between Lensky and Onegin was executed with more respect compared to the Komische Oper's version of this production. Onegin was not mockingly laughing at Lensky. At the end of their duet, they were just sitting side-by-side, with Onegin’s arm over Lensky’s shoulders, which made the subsequent duel seem pointless.
The duel scene in Act 2 was played off-stage. Tatyana’s scream echoed as Onegin returned to the stage with his once white now stained with blood, closing the act with the most dramatic end.
During the introduction session, it was explained that the rain effect used in the final scene was actually warm water to ensure that the performers would not feel cold while singing the most poignant duet.
Overall, it was a great experience. I did not dislike this production. Neverteless, I did wish that some of the moments were played differently. Despite being a simple opera, Eugene Onegin has a lot of nuances that unfortunately only few productions manage to capture.
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Zelda having a secret room for when she "needs to concentrate" carries with it the implication that it's Link that makes it difficult to concentrate, since they pretty clearly lived together between BOTW and TOTK. A lesser zelink shipper would turn this into something romantic but I'm operating on a higher wavelength.
"Zelda Zelda Zelda look at this cool rock I found don't you think it looks like a frog? Hey Zelda do you think I could climb all the way to the ceiling without falling hey hey Zelda listen to this *makes horse noise* doesn't that sound just like Epona I'm really good at horse noises hey Zelda Zelda Ze-
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Trolling aside, i think there is some great importance as to why Gege chose this specific manner of panelling for the Yuji-Sukuna confrontation in JJK 264. We can't help but think that Gege's trying to show us some sort of a parallel between Gojo and Sukuna in this situation.
In JJK, there's this interesting notion of one's decision to go "North" or "South" as explained by Nanami during Gojo's death Flashback:
And we all know, that chapter of Gojo's death is titled as "Go South", which highly implies that Gojo chose to stay as who he was, as opposed to starting as something completely anew.
Now the interesting point in the Yuuji-Sukuna confrontation is that apparently...
....the destination for the supposed train within Yuuji's domain...is "North".
Which means that Yuuji's taking Sukuna towards the North.......
They're heading towards the North.....do you guys understand what that means?? For BOTH of them??? Q C Q
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I believe it was a divine intervention who wrote Will Solace on the narrative because how the fuck is he so interesting with so little screentime in the original series? This child who lost siblings and couldn’t even mourn them because he was dragged left and right to help, this child who became a talented and great healer at the ripe age of 12 and became a prodigy at 13, this child who kept absorbing pain and pushing down anger, this child who faced his trauma with a Trademarked Solace Smile and makes everyone feel safe besides himself, this child who had to be a dependable pillar, this child who saw death for so many times and had to accept it, this child, this child, this child whom everyone turns to at all times, this child who’s still only 16 and hasn’t properly been himself much because he has a duty that he loves and must uphold—helping and healing, something he deemed he could only do for others because he believed couldn’t do anything else. This child who got so scared when his best friend went missing, when his remaining siblings went missing, when he thought his father didn’t recognize him. This child who swallows his sadness. This child who was afraid of not being enough, who was afraid that people might leave him if he wasn’t—this child was afraid of people leaving him, because his own Dad did, his relationship with his Mom was not told much, the older siblings he loved left him by death, and he was nervous if Nico will leave him too. This child who feared losing the love of his life so he turned to his anger, his rage, his wrath—all pent up and went loose for a few minutes at Night herself and gave her a fucking hay fever. This child who had his own identity, who had and still has endless possibilities regarding who he is, his powers, and feelings yet reduced to just being a silly, goofy, perfect boyfriend healer of Nico di Angelo who never had a bad day and is stable—and some people loathe him for being “Nico’s Boyfriend” as if it’s his fault. This child is William Andrew Solace and I believe none of us has truly met him fully.
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