Valery Gergiev, Anna Netrebko and the Mariinsky Theatre open the new season at the Met

On Monday 23 September maestro Gergiev will be conducting the orchestra of one of the most illustrious opera houses in the world at a grand gala performance marking the opening of the new season. The current season at the Metropolitan Opera opens with a premiere of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with Anna Netrebko as Tatiana Larina. The role of Tatiana is one of the most important and demanding in the Russian soprano repertoire: the performer has to be able to demonstrate not just dazzling vocal skills but also outstanding acting abilities, depicting in two and a half hours how the character is transformed from an unaffected young woman from the provinces who is “wild, sad and silent like a timid woodland doe” into a refined high-society lady, gleaming “like a star in the gloom of night.” Tatiana Larina is a relatively new role for the acclaimed Russian diva, who made her debut in the role this April in a production at the Wiener Staatsoper.

On The production for the premiere by acclaimed British stage director Deborah Warner, the leitmotif of which is a snowstorm and which is set in Russia in the late 19^th century, has been transferred to the Met from English National Opera where it received exclusively positive reviews from the critics who commented on the production’s “explosive emotionality and attractiveness.” In the USA Netrebko will be partnered by famed Polish singers Mariusz Kwiecień as Onegin (baritone) and Piotr Beczała as Lensky (tenor) and Belorussian mezzo-soprano Olga Volkova (Olga), while the role of Prince Gremin will be sung by Mariinsky Opera bass Alexei Tanovitsky. It should be noted that Anna is the only soprano to date in the history of the New York theatre to be singing a lead role in the first performance of the season for the third year in a row. Tickets for the first eight performances of Onegin under the baton of Valery Gergiev starring the Russian prima donna have sold out, although there will be a broadcast on 5 October live from the Metropolitan at major cinemas throughout the world.

At the Met in late September and early October maestro Gergiev will also be conducting several performances of Dmitry Shostakovich’s opera The Nose in a production by contemporary South African designer William Kentridge, famous for his complex multimedia projects. Here, the role of the District Inspector will be performed by Mariinsky Opera tenor Andrei Popov, an acclaimed interpreter of character roles and contemporary classical music.