"Actor: Ineke Vlogtman"

• Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin -- European Union Orchestra | DVD | (23/11/2000) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The important balance to be struck in any production of Eugene Oneginis between, on the one hand, the long lyrical monologues--Tatiana's letter scene, Lensky's aria, Gremin's praise of his wife--and the crucial confrontations between Tatiana and Onegin with the more public scenes in which these private emotions evolve into tragedy and disillusion. Rozhdestvensky finds this balance effortlessly--the chorus that dances its way through the small-town ball that ends in Lensky's challenge is as much a character in the tragedy as the principals. The principals are excellent, too. Orla Boylan is as good as the mature Tatiana as she is as the callow girl who first falls for Onegin, while Vladimir Gluschak's Onegin is as convincing as the object of her devotion as he is as the self-pitying egoist who wrecks his own life and those of Olga and Lensky. The orchestral sound is convincing but unexciting. --Roz KaveneyOn the DVD: The DVD has subtitles in German, English and French, and the menu is also in Spanish. --Roz Kaveney