Eugene Onegin: a comedy in three acts
So I watched Helikon Opera’s Eugene Onegin again. I have not seen this much laughing in any other staging of Onegin! The singers acted emphatically, and in places it even had a sitcom vibe. I had great fun watching it.
The story of Onegin, if you think about, is quite funny. It’s the irony of fate! This production really doubled down on it, and it could be called Eugene Onegin: zero brain cells edition. Tatiana is immature and innocent, and she writes a very very melodramatic love letter to the hot&single new neighbor Onegin she’s just met and that she mistakes for her long awaited fairy-tale prince.
Her sister Olga (who is portrayed as kind of an asshole) does not understand what all this drama is all about, she wants to have fun and that her bf would take a chill pill.
“What the fuck are you accusing me for, Vladimir!“
Spoiler alert: Lensky does not take a chill pill. Instead he gets in a fight with Onegin, but that friend is a dick who mocks him, and so he calls him out. The other party-goers eat it up: what juicy drama! Some of the chorus where straight up laughing.
Onegin and his buddy monsieur Guillot show up late to the party (aka the duel) and make fun of Lensky’s and Zaretsky ‘s seriousness.
You can tell a lot about the production by how Guillot is portrayed! He thinks this is all in good fun and has no clue how bad this is going to end.
The duet-canon is delicious in how Onegin is repeating the words Lensky is singing, but the meaning is completely different. Lensky is melancholic, mourning their friendship, while Onegin is asking “Bruh, why are we behaving like old enemies? Didn’t we, like, hang out all the time?” Only when they ask themselves if it wouldn’t be better to laugh it off and leave as friends, does Onegin notice that Lensky is serious about this. Dead serious. And by the time Zaretsky hands Onegin his gun, it’s too late to back out.
The comedy here is that neither doesn’t really want to do this. But they can’t imagine going back, and so Onegin shoots Lensky, and does not want to believe that Lensky is actually dead. Poor Guillot does not know what to do with himself, he definitely did not sign up for this, and so he awkwardly hides behind a pillar and just wishes he could sink into the ground.
Onegin’s solution to this is to leave everything behind and travel for a bit. But soon he’s back, and goes straight to the ball.
No Onegin has had this much fun at the ball in Saint Petersburg. He dances and laughs - he has given up and does not give a damn about anything anymore! Until he sees her. Prince Gremin notices that these two have way more backstory than just “oh we were neighbours,” and acts all jealous.
Onegin writes a letter to Tatiana (because that worked before!). But oh, the irony of fate: although Tatiana returns his feeling, it’s all too late. She’s married! Finita la commedia!
Only Russian comedies can be this tragic.
