Debuts in Eugene Onegin

Scene from the opera Eugene Onegin

The opera Eugene Onegin , the genre of which the composer defined as “lyrical scenes”, demands incredible performance sincerity and simplicity of the singers. It was not by chance that Tchaikovsky entrusted the premiere in March 1879 to young performers who were students at the Moscow Conservatoire.

At the Mariinsky Theatre, many brilliant young performers who have subsequently become real stars have made their debuts in Eugene Onegin . At the time, young singers Larisa Diadkova, Tatiana Novikova, Yuri Marusin and Sergei Leiferkus dazzled audiences in Yuri Temirkanov’s 1980s production. Twenty years later, a new stage version of the opera brought a new generation of young performers including Ekaterina Semenchuk, Irina Mataeva and Vladimir Moroz among others to the public’s attention.

On 15 December Yuri Temirkanov’s production will once again witness debuts by young performers at the Mariinsky Theatre; like their antecedents they face the task of recreating the world of Pushkin’s young, passionate and restless characters, both dramatically and vocally. Ekaterina Goncharova, who is making her debut as Tatiana, is a soloist of the opera studio of the St Petersburg Conservatoire and according to Kultura newspaper’s reviewer possesses a “classical lyrical spinto in the spirit of the great Tebaldi.”

Irina Shishkova, a mezzo-soprano with the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers who has won acclaim at several major vocal competitions, has already appeared as Olga, though this will be the first time she sings the role at the Mariinsky Theatre. The music critic of internet portal fontanka.ru has commented that the young singer’s greatest talents lie in her “beautiful, true voice and undoubted musical abilities.”

The role of Onegin will be performed by Vladimir Moroz, while Sergei Semishkur will be appearing as Lensky.