Michael Tanner

Sabotaging Tchaikovsky

Eugene Onegin<br /> Bolshoi, Royal Opera House  La bohème<br /> Soho Theatre, until 4 September

issue 21 August 2010

Eugene Onegin
Bolshoi, Royal Opera House 

La bohème
Soho Theatre, until 4 September

Rule 1 for the sophisticated contemporary opera-goer: complain about the poor diction of singers, especially as compared to 50 years ago, and lay most of the blame on surtitles (actually the connection between the two phenomena is unclear).

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