Unrequited love, regrets, mistakes and jealousy – sound anything like your life now or your dorm floor freshman year?
If so, you have a lot in common with Madison Opera’s production of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” which takes the Overture Center’s stage this weekend.
“It’s a very passionate story, and there are a lot of mistakes and misunderstandings that blow up into these huge plot-changing events,” said UW alumna Jamie Van Eyck, who plays Olga in the famed opera.
The story follows the title character (played by Hyung Yun), a debonair visitor to a small town in 19th century Imperialist Russia. When a young country woman, Tatiana (Maria Kanyova), becomes enamored and makes her move via a love letter, Onegin rejects her and instead flirts with her sister, Olga (Van Eyck). Olga’s fianc? (Scott Ramsay) is enraged and challenges Onegin to a duel, leading to a plague of unhappiness for all four.
Van Eyck compared the work to Puccini’s “La boh?me,” one of the most famous and performed operas and the inspiration behind Jonathan Larson’s “Rent.” “[The characters are] young, sort of carefree people in love. They do things with a lot of passion and they don’t always think them through first, and it gets them into trouble,” she said. “But ultimately it’s very endearing.”
Instead of a typical opera’s format with separate scenes incorporating arias and recitatives, “Eugene Onegin” is episodic, giving glimpses of each character’s motivations and emotions. “It’s episodic, but it’s not without really juicy things to drive the plot,” Van Eyck said. One famous episode shows Tatiana writing her passionate letter to her prospective lover; one shows Onegin denying her, scolding her for writing it in the first place.
Not only is the production Madison Opera’s first performance of a work by Tchaikovsky, who also wrote “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker,” but it’s also the company’s first Russian language opera in its 51st year of performances.
Van Eyck said Tchaikovsky wrote music conducive for the singers, which is not always the case in opera. “[It has] sweeping vocal lines and tunes that come familiar to you by the end of the opera,” she said. “The music is glorious.”
Visual elements complementing the compelling story and passionate music are the period costumes, featuring high-waist gowns and aristocratic suits, and the production’s large set pieces, which serve to enlarge stage space and symbolize the type of room being represented.
Van Eyck described Madison native and director Candace Evans as detail-oriented while also seeking ideas from singers. The two collaborated on Van Eyck’s character’s use of a swing onstage. “We worked together to find ways Olga would move in a really excited, carefree way to indicate her youth and her vigor without actually trying to act like a child,” she said.
Opera tends to have a specific connotation for its audience and for people who say they don’t like it. Van Eyck stressed the importance for potential audience members to realize misconceptions about the medium.
“Opera was never intended to be for an elite, small group of people,” she said. “It was never supposed to be something wealthy people would go to attend and be seen by the paparazzi, and that’s what people think it is today.”
Instead, “Eugene Onegin” is a story anyone can relate to, especially those experiencing -or glad not to be experiencing – the drama behind being young, in love or alone. “It’s an opera about young people. And I think [students] will really relate to the ways that these people go about their lives. They make choices, they make mistakes, they act impulsively and passionately,” Van Eyck said. “And that’s what opera is. It’s like going to a movie.”
Performances are Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the Overture Center. Student rush tickets will be available for $20 at the box office; general admission tickets range from $18-$116. For more information, go to www.overturecenter.com.
