PETER Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onégin had not been staged in Phillipine theatres, not until the Conservatory of Music took the challenge last Oct. 5 at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo in the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Various Conservatory talents lent their excellence to Tchaikovsky’s adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s tragic love story. Pushkin was considered the greatest Russian poet and founder of modern Russian literature. His hero, in fact, served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes. Eugene Onégin is a narrative novel written in verse in iambic tetrameter from which the “Onégin stanza” was derived. Actors from the Conservatory sung the precise Russian lyrics, with some coaching by a representative from the Russian Embassy.
The opera was directed by theatre director Floy Quintos and under the baton of musical director Herminigildo Ranera.
Eugene Onégin tells the simple rustic life of Tatyana, a virtuous and bookish lady who falls in love with a high-class city man named Onégin, but the latter rejects Tatyana’s impassioned confession of love.
Onégin meets Tatyana again in a ball, only to find out that she has already married a nobleman, Prince Gremin. Onégin realizes that he is in love with Tatyana, but this time, the country-girl-turned-princess rejects his affection. The opera closes with Onégin being “drowned” in Tatyana’s passionate letters, mourning the loss of what could have been the love of his life.
The opera’s cast included baritone Andrew Fernando and soprano Rachelle Gerodias playing the lead characters; Noel Azcona and Thea Perez alternated. The other performers were sopranos Clarissa Ocampo, Rexceluz Evangelista, Naomi Sison, Mary Patrice Pacis, and Nenen Espina; tenors Ronan Ferrer, Randy Gilongo, Eugene de los Santos, and Lemuel dela Cruz; bass Jun Jaranilla; and baritones Aris Molina and Jesus Emmanuel Baang.
The Opera Chorus, Coro Tomasin, and the Music Dance Troupe also sung and acted their way into helping the leads paint drama throughout the opera which was very believable.
Multi-awarded set designer Gino Gonzales crafted a geometric modern backdrop for the first act, veering away from the real country setting which was represented through solid-shaped set platforms but painted convincingly into a rustic background. He also created minimalist trees for a Russian-country-estate effect. The plot progressed with vivid changes in lighting effects.
The first scene immediately established Tatyana’s introverted character who chooses to spend more time with her book more than anything else. Gerodias, who played Tatyana in the gala, effectively conveyed the innocence and freshness of the character.
The set in the second scene gave a good hint to the non-Russian audience, the change in Tatyana’s character, as the words “I am awakened” were painted across the wall, implying her transformation from a shy young girl to a sophisticated dignified woman. As she finishes her letter for Onégin, Tatyana throws her books away while singing the “longest aria ever written for a diva,” as described by Quintos, titled the “Letter Aria”.
“The audience does not know the story so we told it in a way that every detail is vivid,” Quintos told the Varsitarian. “All the smallest details
like writing and delivering of the letter to Onégin were told and acted in a way that the non-Russian speaking audience would understand the opera.”
Again, Gonzales used a radical geometric, hall set-design for the first scene of the second act, with walls slightly skewed to create a convincing impression of wide spaces and partitions. The scattered candles across the walls made the scene look every bit of an elegant Russian party.
The final confrontation between Tatyana and Onégin brimmed with emotion and passion. Simple turns and head tilts were effective with Tatyana’s expression of resistance against Onégin. Gerodias’ angry whipping of her costume skirt gave a good hint to the audience that Tatyana was not mindful of Onégin’s efforts to win her heart. The fast switching of places between the two main characters gave a definite air of conflict during their conversation.
An audience unfamiliar with the Russian language might not quickly grasp the opera’s storyline. If not for the visual emphasis and the exaggeration in choreography, which was not detrimental to the opera, the actors might not have been able to convey clearly the tragic love story of Onégin and receive thundering round of applause from the audience. The opera proved that language and culture are no barriers when it comes to the performing arts. Rafael S. Mejia
