What a rare pleasure it was to encounter Wild Arts Opera at Layer Marney Tower in rural Essex. Amongst the delights within its fourth summer season, was the immersive experience of Tchaikovsky’s 1879 work staged within a medieval barn next to England’s tallest Tudor gatehouse, a location that could almost have been Madame Larina’s country estate. No less satisfying was seeing how this production reflected the composer’s wish that “the choruses should not be like a herd of sheep … they must be people who really are participating in the plot …” a request abundantly fulfilled. And finally, there was the directorial ‘hands off’ approach from Dominic Dromgoole (formerly of Shakespeare’s Globe), who steers away from concept-driven productions, preferring to let a work speak for itself. He made no bones about his attitude in the souvenir book, exclaiming he just wants “operas to be operas”, adding (one senses with a hint of rising blood pressure, “It’s almost impossible now to go and see a play that is just itself, that hasn’t been ‘versioned’ by somebody or other.”
With no agenda inflicted on us at Layer Marney Tower, this staging felt as if place, music and action came together with magical force. But it wasn’t necessarily the absence of any directorial interference that triumphed here, it was the sheer immediacy of the performance, its focus and a sense of total commitment from all those involved. Wilds Arts Opera has customised everything to meet the needs of a touring company, operating virtually from the back of a van, one, in this case, carrying four benches, a wooden window frame and a selection of period costumes. Props are minimal at the barn, since the stage, surrounded on three sides by the audience and one by a chamber orchestra, is no bigger than a boxing ring. And Orlando Jopling’s tailor-made arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s original score is stripped back to a mere 10 players. Nothing is lost in this trim version, its details sharpened, and the grandeur of those dance episodes now vividly illuminated. With the players performing beside the stage rather than below it, they could see the action and respond to tempo or dynamics even before the conductor provided his own clues.
Casting was especially good, with Timothy Nelson’s mahogany-voiced Onegin a model of cool politeness. Knowingly provocative to Lensky in the Act 2 ball, he finally poured remorse and belated ardour into his closing duet with Tatyana to bring searing intensity. Galina Averina, as Tatyana, gave a convincing traversal of self-absorbed bibliophile to determinedly dignified and faithful wife to the war veteran Prince Gremin, her earnest expression yielding briefly to youthful passion (if not any sense of sexual awakening) in her gloriously sung letter aria. But it was the admission of her continued love for Onegin in the closing Tableau where she caught Tatyana’s conflicting emotions to perfection.
As Lensky, Xavier Hetherington brought youthful charm and no small degree of regret to his Act 2 soliloquy. It was a moment of rare stillness as the consequence of his challenge to Onegin dawned on him. Anticipating the fateful outcome of his folly, he questioned his sanity in a voice combining fervour and fragility. His childhood sweetheart Olga was sung by a bright-eyed, if under characterised Emily Hodkinson. Yet she was a magnetic presence in the harvest chorus with Hannah Sandison’s Larina, Rozanna Madylus’s Filipyevna and Laura Mekhail’s Katerina, all impressing as individuals and fully inhabiting their separate roles. Elsewhere, Sion Goronwy was suitably noble as Prince Gremin, his cavernous voice filling the stage in his paean to Tatyana, and Robert Burt entertained with comic couplets as Triquet. A nimble Alex Pratley, as Zaretsky, admirably stayed in character when nodding to me in acknowledgment for moving my legs as he sashayed past my position in the front row.
Lastly, a word of praise for Orlando Jopling who steered his players through the score with unflagging efficiency and energy, coaxing from his instrumentalists playing of exceptional musicianship and sensitivity. This was musical collaboration that could easily have graced some of this country’s established theatres.
David Truslove
Eugene Onegin
Music: Pyotyr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Libretto: by the composer and Konstantin Stepanovich Shilovsky after the verse novel by Alexander Pushkin & translated into a new English version by Siofra Dromgoole.
Cast & Production staff:
Eugene Onegin – Timothy Nelson; Tatyana – Galina Averina, Lensky – Xavier Hetherington; Olga – Emily Hodkinson; Larina – Hannah Sandison; Filipyevna – Rozanna Madylus; Gremin – Sion Goronwy; Triquet – Robert Burt; Zaretsky – Alex Pratley; Katerina – Laura Mekhail
Director – Dominic Dromgoole; Costume Designer – Tatyana Dolmatovskaya; Movement – Sian Williams; Producer – Max Parfitt; The Wild Arts Ensemble; Conductor & orchestration – Orlando Jopling
Layer Marney Tower, Essex, 21 June 2025, and on tour until 18 September
All photos © Allan Titmuss