Eugene Onegin by Suffolk Opera, Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds
Small and well formed – an exciting opera superbly sung
This small but well-formed company complemented its performance with some stunning guest leads as Tchaikovsky’s opera of love and honour played out to an appreciative audience.
Suffolk Opera, which has a small number of performers, put on a well-directed, costumed and voiced production with some heart-stopping arias from Lynsey Docherty who plays Tatyana, the naive romantic who falls for cynical and disengaged Onegin. The ‘Letter Scene’, in which Tatyana write unrestrainedly of her love for Onegin, was excellent as Tchaikovsky’s score, which mirrors her emotions, was superbly played by Peter Cowdrey, musical director.
There were excellent cameo moments particularly from young Alex Wingfield – an up and coming talent – who played the dilettante M Triquet, while superb dance from choreographer Natalie Roberts added extra dimensions to the ball scene in Act Two.
Staging was exciting with scenes opening with the chorus in silhouette and costumes for the ball were superb.
But overall it was the vocal excellence with masterful accompaniment by Cowdrey that held the piece together.
The final aria between Docherty and Onegin, played by Luke D Williams, was a superb climax to the tale as you watched the two disparate souls locked in doomed circumstances.
I was engrossed and marvelled the whole way through.
Lesley Anslow, Bury Free Press, 26th November 2009
