"When the Canadian Opera Company acquired and revived Robert Carsen’s 1997 Met production of Eugene Onegin for its 2018 season, most reviews praised it for standing the test of time. The same production, directed by Peter McClintock, has popped up in a few other North Amerian opera houses, where reactions have been more mixed, especially from those lamenting Carsen’s excising of any visual clues to the opera’s Russian setting.

There’s definitely something to be said there. Had I not known that the production goes back nearly 30 years, I would have taken that deletion as a symptom of post-Ukraine-war derussification campaigns. Clearly there was a different agenda. For better or for worse?..."

[Continue at Ludwig Van]