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“Evgeny Onegin” is kind of idiosyncratically-charismatic Russian opera. As beautiful it is the “Onegin” has no typical thrill that the ordinary opera lovers accustomed to get rush upon. It has nether gipsy colors on the stage, nor masquerade grand dancing. It has nether  large orchestra with Wagnerian sound effects nor It has Italian vocal wipes…. In fact I believe Tchaikovsky never even called it an opera but rather the “lyric scenes”. However, if you were blessed by ability to undusted Pushkin’s lyrics and were exposed to a proper performance of this Tchaikovsky’s work then the force of the “Onegin” opera would forever be implanted in your mind. Yes, properly composed and performed the minimalist operatic means could in context of ‘everything else” to pump the artistic pressure with a force of mid-size hurricane and as far as I concern the “Evgeny Onegin” is one of those works. The opera is the very best what Tchaikovsky ever did for stage and arguably the very best that he ever did.

In a way the “Evgeny Onegin” is a lucky opera and it was performed countless number times. Abbado, Rozhdestvenskii,  Stokowski, Karajan, Ozawa, Fiedler and many other conducted “Onegin”, many orchestras took it and most of the noted singers in one way or another sang the pieces from “Onegin”. Many musicians played “Onegin” and even Jascha Heifetz tried to accommodate the opera for violin. Onegin was sang in English and German, both horrible but … hey, whatever!

There are plenty performances out there on CD, LPs and bootlegs. To mention a few that were not “complete” disaster and without any particular order:

• Kruglikova, Ivanov and estimable Kozlovskii with Bolshoi Chorus/Orchestra under Aleksandr Orlov  in 1947-1948
• Mazurok, Vishnevskaia and Atlantov with Bolshoi Orchestra & Chorus in paris by Mstislav Rostropovich in 1970. the performance that Rostropovich was hoping all, his live and that turn out to be  very mediocre
• Soundtrack of film by Bolshoi with Vishnevskaya and conducted by Khaikin in 1957 (not with the 1955 cast)
• Thomas Allen with Freni accompanied by Staatskapelle Dresden lead by James Levine in 1987
• Mazurok, Milashkina, Atlantov, wonderful Siniavskay and  Nesterenko with Bolshoi lead by Mark Ermler in 1977
• Nortzov, Zhukovskaia, first recording since 1927 of Sergei Lemeshev and wonderful Aleksandr Pirogov with Bolshoi Theatre conducted by  Nebolsin  in 1936
• Mazurok,  Gedda by semi-tuned Bulgarian Festival Orchestra under  Tchakarov  in 1988
• Weikl, Kubiak and Ghiaurov with Royal Covent Garden  under Georg Solti  in 1974
• Semyon Bychkov conducting the Orchestre de Paris in 1994 and then later in 2002 leading the Vienna Staatsoper

And of course there was the Onegin of the Onegins: the performance in 1955 by Boris Khaikin with Bolshoi Orchestra & Chorus in studio of Moscow Radio Center. The singers were top notch: Evgenii Belov was singing Onegin. Many people do not appreciate what he did but I  feel he was the best Onegin ever. Onegin should be singing carelessly, superficially and with somehow artificial emotions. It was exactly what Belov did and I could not expect anything better from Onegin in context of the given opera. Yong eight-moth pregnant Galina Vishnevskaiy sung Tatiana. It was probably the best-recorded performance of Vishnevskaiy and probably the last time when he sang more or less interestingly. Unfortunately later on his “babushka inflection” took over her singing mannerism and she never was “there” anymore. The very minor criticism might be extended to the final of the opera when 29 years old Vishnevskaiy tried to sing “old and experienced Tatiana” but unfortunately she sounded like a teacher in a catholic school. Still, he did very-very fine job even there. Many years later Vishnevskaia, when she got some life maturity, did the final duet with Onegin better, I would not say sonically better but rather better in acting mannerism. At that time her age was more corresponding to the “retired” Tatiana. Sergei Lemeshev sing Lensky, well this, I hope, does not require any further explanations….   Larissa Avdeeva did very good Olga and  Ivan Petrov  performed a phenomenal Gremin.  One of my favorite character in the “Onegin” (the poem) is nana and she was performed by  Evgenia Verbitskaia, and performed beautifully. In other word it was a pure perfection but the real melting force that took it all together come form amassing conducting of Boris Khaikin and from a very-very tasteful mixing of this studio recording.  Khaikin is stunningly supportive but never brisk, never flashy, never full of his orchestra but in those Tchaikovsky’s moment what he allow the music to bloom Khaikin and his orchestra dose something that no one before or after was not able to repeat in this work

The recording quality of the Onegin’55, as I said, was wonderful. It was one of the last mono recordings and they did a phenomenal quality and mastering. With a good playback this mono recording will be larger then 99% of your stereo recordings, or course it you find a good copy…

Well, to find a good copy it virtually imposable. Russians release that album on this first Melodia and some alternative, labels. Unfortunately the early Russian vinyl was horrible (the later was very bad as well) and all Onegin’55 records (that I have seen) are quite surface-noisy. Among a dozen of the Onegin’55 first pressings that I own all of them have very pure vinyl with the insect’s legs sticking out of the grooves. I have a dozen or so early Western pressings of the same performance but I am not very warm about them as well. A very minor exception might be the very early Westminster pressing where they use some kind of very strange EQ curve. This curve is very different from anything else and turn my air caps in my corrector to play the record …  the CDs are ever worst. There are 5 CDs “pressing” and all of them too sharp and too aggressive. The most horrible of them the ordinal Melodia double-box CD. This set is so “hot” that it even poisoning. Ironically the very best of records Onegin’55 come from a radical CD by Legato. These guys took an old and nosy record and juts recoded it on CD, using a low pass filter. No mater how bad it was but it is the most musically sounding Onegin’55 that you might find on CD. Probably the use low-pass filtering on analog domain that contrary to digital domain did not destroy the stricture of music and voices.  I was thinking to do the transfer myself… Since I god recently the Larvy AD-122 and since I have a copy of sealed (!) Westminster Onegin’55 I might do a very reasonable transfer sometimes… but there is a catch…

People who read my site frequently know that I recently infatuated with the mystery of FM query. In a few days my favorite local station will broadcast the Onegin’55. I do not know what source they will be using and how it will turn out to be after it go through the “FM musicalization”. However, I will be recording and if I will be lucky and if my assumption about the “FM magic” will be correct again  then I might have an interesting result from this Fm broadcast.

I will posting the fragments if it will be worth it…
Romy the Cat

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