Utica, N.Y. — Munson will present Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s timeless story of missed chances and emotional reckoning, “Eugene Onegin,” at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 9, in the Museum’s Sinnott Family–Bank of Utica Auditorium in Downtown Utica as part of The Met: Live in HD, a series of live cinema transmissions. This presentation will be an encore recording of the performance that was broadcast live on May 2.
Tchaikovsky’s many moods—tender, grand, melancholy—are all given free rein in “Eugene Onegin.” The opera is based on Pushkin’s iconic verse novel, which reimagines the Byronic romantic anti-hero as the definitive bored Russian aristocrat caught between convention and ennui; Tchaikovsky, similarly, took Western European operatic forms and transformed them into an authentic and undeniably Russian work. At the core of the opera is the young girl Tatiana, who grows from a sentimental adolescent into a complete woman in one of the operatic stage’s most convincing character developments.
Tchaikovsky’s original score neatly divides into each of its three acts: from the timeless rituals of country life to the rural gentry with its troubles and pleasures and, finally, the glittering imperial aristocracy of St. Petersburg. His universally beloved lyric gifts are at their most powerful and multilayered in this opera. Rich ensembles and buoyant dance numbers punctuate the work, and the vocal solos are among the most striking in the repertory. Anyone who can remember the first stirrings of love will be moved by Tatiana’s Letter Scene, in which she rhapsodically composes a letter to Onegin in an outpouring of gorgeous melody. This is rivaled in popularity by the tenor’s moving farewell to his young life in Act II, while Onegin’s Act III narrative on the pointlessness of life borders on Wagnerian.
Following her acclaimed 2024 company debut in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, soprano Asmik Grigorian returns to the Met as Tatiana, the lovestruck young heroine in this ardent operatic adaptation of Pushkin. Baritone Lurii Samoilov is the urbane Onegin, who realizes his affection for her all too late.
Tickets are $26 for Munson Members, $32 for the general public, and $16 for students and can be purchased by calling 315-797-0055 or online at munson.art/met-live.
The final performances this season will be “El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego,” by Gabriela Lena Frank at 1 p.m., May 30. More information on each performance and tickets are available at munson.art/met-live.
“The Met: Live in HD” at Munson is sponsored by Elizabeth R. Lemieux, Ph.D.
“The Met: Live in HD” series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital Support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. “The Met: Live in HD” series is supported by Rolex.
For media inquiries, please contact Katie Voce, communications manager, at 315-797-0000 ext. 2147 or via email at kvoce@munson.art.
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Munson is at 310 Genesee St. in Utica. For more information, visit munson.art.
About Munson
Munson is an internationally recognized fine arts organization in Utica, serving diverse audiences through a renowned Museum of Art, live performances and events, community arts classes, and Pratt Munson College of Art and Design, the upstate extension campus of the prestigious Pratt I
