Of the many adjectives one might use to describe a Barrie Kosky production, ‘subtle’, ‘restrained’ and ‘straightforward’ probably wouldn’t be the first that came to mind. Mr Kosky has, indeed, built something of a reputation for his ability to wield grand spectacle with great precision, employing the bizarre, the grotesque and the confrontational as a means of creating unforgettable theatrical images. And while memorable moments were not in short supply in his arresting new production of Eugene Onegin, which opened recently at Berlin’s Komische Oper, the greatest shock of the evening was the high level of subtlety and restraint to be found in a staging that made no attempts to conceal its flirtations with tradition.
Tradition, of course, is relative; but the liberties taken by Mr Kosky – which included compressing the action of the first…
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