Tchaikovsky's romantic masterpiece Eugene Onegin, based on the Pushkin poem, returns to the Met on Friday, January 30, with a superb international cast. American baritone Thomas Hampson returns to the role of Onegin, the haughty aristocrat who acknowledges love too late, opposite the Finnish soprano Karita Mattila making her Met role debut as Tatiana, who grows from a love-struck young girl to an aristocratic woman. Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk is her sister, Olga; Polish tenor Piotr Beczala is Lenski, Onegin's doomed friend; and Russian bass Sergei Aleksashkin is Gremin, the elderly prince who marries Tatiana. Aleksashkin will sing the first two performances and American bass James Morris, taking on the role for the first time at the Met, does the remainder of the run. Czech maestro Jiří Bĕlohlávek conducts all performances, through February 21. The production is by Robert Carsen, sets and costumes are by Michael Levine, Jean Kalman is the lighting designer, and the choreographer is Serge Bennathan.
About the performers
"Thomas Hampson is moving from strength to strength these days; his Onegin was truly fine," the New York Times critic wrote in 2001, when Hampson first played the Tchaikovsky hero at the Met. Earlier this season, he sang Germont in Act II of La Traviata at the Opening Night Gala and gave an acclaimed portrayal of Athanaël in the new production of Thaïs-both opposite Renée Fleming and both transmitted live as part of The Met: Live in HD. Last season his Met repertoire expanded to include Don Carlo in Ernani, one of more than 20 roles he has taken on since his 1986 debut as Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. Hampson has appeared with the MET Orchestra and played the title roles in the Met premiere of Doktor Faust (2001) and in Marthe Keller's new production of Don Giovanni (2004). A leading operatic baritone, he is also a scholar, recitalist, and founder of the Hampsong Foundation, dedicated to the art of song. Hampson was recently named Artist-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic, beginning with the 2009-10 season.
Finnish soprano Karita Mattila is singing Tatiana for the first time in her remarkable Met career. Earlier this season, when she returned as Salome, the role of her extraordinary 2004 triumph, the New York Times critic wrote, "I cannot think of a performance on any stage in New York right now that tops Ms. Mattila's Salome for courage, intensity and emotional nakedness." Opera lovers around the world were able to experience that performance as part of The Met: Live in HD. Last season, they also saw her first Met Manon Lescaut live in HD. Mattila has appeared in six new productions at the Met: as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (her 1990 debut); Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1993); Lisa in The Queen of Spades (1995); Leonore in Fidelio (2000); and the title roles of Jenůfa (2003) and Salome (2004). Among her other roles at the Met are Kát'a Kabanová and Chrysothemis.
Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk, who sang the role of Paulina in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades earlier this season, sings Olga for the first time at the Met. When she made her company debut as Sonya in the 2002 premiere of War and Peace, the New Yorker critic singled her out as a favorite in the enormous cast, saying she "sang gorgeously." Semenchuk's repertoire both at home and abroad is not restricted to Russian works. Later this year, for instance, she plays Carmen-a role she has performed in Dallas and Philadelphia- in Leipzig, and sings Mahler with Marin Alsop and the Bournemouth Symphony.
Piotr Beczala makes his Met role debut as Lenski. When he sang Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor earlier this season, the New York Times said that his "impassioned singing had poignant colorings and virile intensity, that ping that opera buffs call squillo." Later this season, he returns as the Duke in Rigoletto, the role of his 2006 Met debut, and in the spring he sings throughout Europe. His schedule includes Rodolfo in La Bohème at the Bavarian State Opera; the Duke in Rigoletto and Alfredo in La Traviata at the Zurich Opera; the title role in La Damnation de Faust at Madrid's Teatro Real; Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera at the Berlin State Opera, and Faust at the Vienna State Opera.
Sergei Aleksashkin appears again as Prince Gremin, which he sang to acclaim in 2007 when Eugene Onegin was transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD. The Russian bass appeared last season as the General in The Gambler, the role in which he debuted in the opera's Met premiere in 2001. Aleksashkin, who has been a member of the Kirov Opera since 1989 and tours often with the Kirov-Mariinsky company, sings regularly with such opera companies and festivals as the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, the Washington National Opera, the Netherlands Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival, and Finland's Mikkeli Festival.
