Eugene Onegin

Critically acclaimed opera returns to Bjørvika

It’s a bitter cold winter. We’re at the Larin Family estate outside of St. Petersburg, where Mrs Larin lives with her daughters, Olga and Tatyana. When Olga’s fiancé Lensky introduces Tatyana to his friend Onegin, it changes the lives of the four young people forever.

Christof Loy's critically acclaimed production received rave reviews when it premiered in 2020. NRK’s critic Eystein Sandvik called the opera “... the most beautiful and passionate music ever to have risen from the orchestra pit of the Norwegian National Opera”, while Olav Egil Aune from Vårt Land described it as “so ‘naked’ that for a few hours, our hearts and everything in them beat harder or softer for a few hours.”

Tumultuous love

The opera could just as aptly have been titled Tatyana Larin. After all, it’s as much her story as it is anyone else’s. It’s about the moment she saw him for the first time – the handsome, well-travelled and confident Onegin. And it’s about when, 16 years later, he seaw Tatyana – a mature, well-read and beautiful woman. But by then, it was too late. Experience Audun Iversen as Onegin, Olesya Golovneva as Tatyana, Eirik Grøtvedt as Lensky and Astrid Nordstad as Olga when the performance returns to the Main Stage!

Lyrical scenes

Eugene Onegin features grand choir scenes and grand music. Yet it’s an intimate work that takes us into the remote corners of the human mind. Tchaikovsky referred to the opera as ‘lyrical scenes’ and could not imagine it being performed on major opera stages. In that, he was wrong. Since premiering at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1881, the opera has thrilled audiences in opera houses around the world.

Sweet reunion

Director Christof Loy is known for his strong directing skills and has been nominated as ‘Opera Director of the Year’ by trade magazine Opernwelt no fewer than three times. The magazine also described his Eugene Onegin in Oslo as one of the best opera performances of 2020.