I’m watching the Met’s Eugene Onegin with Renee Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Onegin has just had his duel and the Polonaise has begun. (I thought dancers were supposed to be there for the Polonaise; the Met production just has Onegin changing clothing during the piece.)
This work is, I’m sorry to say, inserted in a Nutcracker I play. When we play it we have a variety of tempi throughout the work, moving from okay to lethargic … so slow it hurts to get through it. Now I’m hearing it at the right time, with the right tempo, with a full opera orchestra.
It’s a strange thing! But welcome.
We’ll be doing this next year with Opera San José. I’m looking forward to it. (Although the last time we did it we nearly cut the entire Polonaise. I wonder if they’ll add more back in next year.)
If our DVD recorder was working I would have recorded this for Jameson. Ah well. Maybe I can purchase it at some point. I see it’s available: Tchaikovsky – Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007]
