Putin Says Tchaikovsky Canceled. Met Opera disagrees.

Opera, once divided into local companies of mostly singers from the same country, has evolved into a purely international art form with the advent of air travel. French, German and Italian opera houses began to host artists from all over the world.

It’s easy to underestimate this. But it seems remarkable—almost heroic—that after the Russian invasion of Ukraine a month ago, the Metropolitan Opera staged Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” with a Russian, Ukrainian, American, French, Armenian, Polish and Estonian ensemble. . . (And that’s just the featured players.)

The skill and care given to this revival of one of Russia’s greatest cultural exports refutes the cynical claim that the West is on a cancellation spree. “The names of Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff are being omitted from the game advertisements,” Russian President Vladimir V. Putin said on television on Friday.

Forget the “Eugene Onegin” that opened at the Met that evening as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Shostakovich was playing across the street. And later this week, the Philharmonic is holding three concerts by Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, and more Rachmaninoff concerts the week after that. As with many cancellation culture narratives, this one is not about facts, but about fostering a sense of grievance.

However, no matter how distorted, Putin’s comments – and his battle – were impossible to forget on Friday. And as with so many Russian operas at the Met, this performance was hard to watch without thinking. chief Valery GergievHe’s become so closely identified with this repertoire in New York that he’s on the podium for the premiere of Deborah Warner’s boring “Onegin” scene when the season opens in 2013.

Even then, Gergiev faced protests over his ties to Putin – just as he did star soprano Anna Netrebko, the house’s manager prima donna sings Tatiana. Now both of their international careers are in shambles and it seems unlikely that they will ever appear again at the Met, as both refuse to distance themselves from the Russian president; Gergiev dated Putin on Friday with video link.

As they came to mind during “Onegin,” along with feelings of anger, sadness, and disappointment, they were memories of Gergiev’s sweaty intensity at his best and Netrebko’s creamy generous tone and presence of his.

Their 2013 performance, however, was not the best moment for either of them. On Friday, soprano Ailyn Pérez, who first sang Tatiana, made a more memorable impression in the episode than before.

Pérez’s voice is less pompous than Netrebko’s but more believable like a girl, befitting a character in her teens. He didn’t exaggerate Tatiana’s bookish shyness or his anxious love for Onegin—but he made these qualities audible in the tightly trembling, almost trembling radiance of his high notes and the soft-veined humility of his lower range. In the final act, which takes place a few years after the first two, her voice hardens to reflect her disappointed femininity.

While Netrebko had trouble radiating his intense voice, Pérez sometimes lacked the tonal swell to fill the big lines, a song heavier than lyrical roles – like Mimì in “La Bohème” and Micaëla in “Carmen” – he is best known for himself on the Met. That’s why the big Letter Scene was softer than ecstatic, and Tatiana’s final encounter with Onegin wasn’t exactly conquered. However as in his solo comeback At the Met’s performance of Verdi’s Requiem last fall to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, its urgency and dedication to the text helped make up for any plush shortcomings.

The orchestra needs to feed the intensity in this opera, and under James Gaffigan the stakes felt low. What is missing is II. The heavy brutality at the end of the first act in Act and the wild currents in the ensemble as the Letter Scene reached its climax. Sometimes III. As in a flamboyant Polynesian at the start of the curtain ball, the vitality was right; sometimes spirited but faceless, it just felt so light.

When Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”, which runs until May 7, was revived in the company directed by Alexander Soddy, the sound was more lush and silky the previous Saturday. As in “Onegin” (until April 14), she was singing the lead role for the first time – and as in Pérez’s Tatiana, Butterfly soprano Eleonora Buratto’s introduction to heavier pieces at the Met; she will sing about Elisabetta in Verdi’s “Don Carlo” there this fall.

And like Pérez, Buratto was persuasive in his youth, his acting was reserved and his voice gentle. He started “Un bel dì,” Butterfly’s imaginary hopes that flowed naturally from speech, not as if he were embarking on a grand aria. And after the tremendous challenge of this number, his voice seemed to have relaxed, become wider and bolder.

With “Addio, fiorito noble,” towards the end, tenor Brian Jagde’s voice, which was safe and bright from the beginning, filled under the top notes of cadish Pinkerton; Elizabeth DeShong echoed Suzuki, which she said forcefully.

To Pérez in “Onegin” baritone Igor Golovatenko, his voice is steady and strong, like Onegin. Tenor Piotr Beczala was as fierce yet graceful as Lenski doomed to death; veterans Elena Zaremba and Larissa Diadkova were sharp in small roles.