Russian opera makes a comeback

The National Center for the Performing Arts will start its annual opera festival with Russian opera Eugene Onegin, a co-production of Mariinsky Theater and the National Center for the Performing Arts. Provided to China Daily

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The co-production by stage director Alexei Stepanyuk, set designer Alexander Orlov and costume designer Irina Cherednikova gracefully and faithfully depicts the world of Tchaikovsky and Pushkin. Its premiere in Moscow in early February received widespread acclaim.

Beijing-based music critic Lun Bing, who attended the premiere in Moscow, says: "It's an impressive production. It reminds me of my youth when China and Russia were on good terms and people in the two countries exchanged art, music and drama. What's more, the director and designer recreated visually the incredibly complex world of the protagonists."

Gergiev says: "It's Pushkin's and Tchaikovsky's opera, a real Russian opera. You have different versions of Eugene Onegin. In French people's eyes, Russians are poor.

"If you respect your country, your own tradition, you don't need to invite conductors and directors from foreign countries."

The stage director Stepanyuk says his production is a contemporary stage director's take on this subject.

"And not just of a contemporary stage director, but of a contemporary person in general. I would like young people to discover themselves in my production," Stepanyuk says.

He says that, over hundreds of years, manners change, language changes and people's behavior changes, but the essence of humanity remains.

"So, on the one hand, I want to hear pure Russian language and see the manners, etiquette and the behavioral nuances of Pushkin's time. On the other hand, it's very important that the production is not some kind of 'historic guide'. It should be psychologically convincing and all of its characters-starting with Onegin and ending with Zaretsky-must be real people.

"Our sets and costumes are historically accurate, but this is not literal history. They are rather miserly and yet, at the same time, highly emotional. The result is a somewhat ascetic though imaginative production.