Katie Van Kooten excels as heart of 'Eugene Onegin'

For its first staging of "Eugene Onegin" since 2002, Houston Grand Opera has turned to director Robert Carsen's production introduced at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1997 - and it proves a sound choice.

With Paula Suozzi's deft restaging and Michael Levine's spare "white box" production design, the production proves effective and evocative - maybe more so than one might have anticipated from a simple description of the concept. This is a case of a minimalist aesthetic serving an opera's meaning and mood with originality and resourcefulness. That takes care of the visual dimension.

As we've come to expect from HGO, the aural dimension is equally accomplished. Scott Hendricks gives a strong performance in the tricky title role. In the other two leads - to whom the work is somewhat tilted in terms of both sympathy and the opera's home-run solo arias, Katie Van Kooten and Norman Reinhardt are merely magnificent as Tatyana and Lensky, the ill-fated souls to whom Onegin brings such grief. They and the rest of the cast, including the expectably excellent Houston Grand Opera Chorus, are supported by Michael Hofstetter's astute conducting and the masterful orchestral performance.

Based on Alexander Pushkin's classic verse novel, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's greatest opera has a fascinating symmetry. In Act 1, innocent young country girl Tatyana falls madly in love with Onegin, a jaded dandy who visits her family with his friend Lensky, who is engaged to Tatyana's sister, Olga. Tatyana impulsively pours her heart into a letter to Onegin. But when next they meet, Onegin coldly rebuffs her, saying he's not the marrying kind and that she should be more guarded with her feelings.

In Act 3, the two meet again years later. Returning from a trip abroad, Onegin attends a grand party and discovers Tatyana is now a fine lady - a princess, in fact, the wife of the much older Prince Gremin. Onegin, to his astonishment, finds he is smitten with Tatyana and realizes how foolish he was to spurn her. This time, he writes a love-woozy letter. And though she still loves him, Tatyana - for much better reasons than Onegin gave her - rejects him and leaves him devastated.

Acts 1 and 3 are chiefly about Onegin and Tatyana, with the neat reversal of who loves and who gets rejected. Act 2 is chiefly about Onegin and Lensky. At a party, Onegin is bored, restless and irritated at Lensky for insisting he attend. He playfully avenges himself by flirting with Olga, and the flighty miss plays along. Lensky is hurt and outraged, and a quarrel erupts that ends with Lensky challenging Onegin to a duel. The next dawn, despite their second thoughts, both men feel bound by convention to follow through. Onegin shoots his best friend dead. That leads to his years of aimless wandering and is, perhaps, why he's more emotionally receptive when he meets Tatyana upon his return.

"Eugene Onegin" is an atypical opera in many ways - for instance, no love duets; the love is always one-sided. Still, Tchaikovsky's score abounds in gorgeous music, from the orchestral showpieces of the Act 2 waltz and Act 3 polonaise, to such masterful lyric sequences as Tatyana's "Letter Scene" - the apex and very soul of the opera - and Lensky's wrenchingly moving solo just before the duel.

The production's very spareness becomes a form of stylization. It creates memorable stage pictures within the three blank walls through the adroit use of a few props and set pieces - chairs, dead leaves blanketing the floor - and especially, through Christine Binder's brilliant lighting, which can flood those walls with blazing color. Lensky's pre-dawn reverie, for instance, occurs in a glow of beauteous, eerie blue. Levine's costumes are handsome in traditional period style. Choreographer Serge Bennathan achieves some neat touches, as in the party crowd of couples waltzing in a tightly confined circle.

Perhaps the most dramatic coup is achieved by moving nonstop from the end of Act 2 to the start of Act 3. With Onegin still surveying Lensky's lifeless body, the strains of the famous polonaise begin. But rather than a stage full of dancers, courtiers walk on and begin dressing Onegin for a party, as others set up the chairs for the next scene and eventually the party guests enter - the whole sequence suggesting the aimless round of Onegin's life in the aftermath of Lensky's death.

In both his singing and characterization, Hendricks lends Onegin strength and stubborn pride. Rather than foppishness, there's a toughness in his aloof condescension and man-of-the-world pose. That makes his Act 3 reversal quite affecting - the once-cool customer now helplessly begging for the love of the woman he once rejected.

Tatyana is the heart of the opera and Van Kooten could scarcely be better, vocally or dramatically. In Act 1, her Tatyana is dreamy and girlishly impulsive, overwhelmed by her quite illogical passion for a man she's just met. Her contrast as the mature Tatyana of Act 3 is striking, the composure and decorum, the passion now womanly and stringently controlled. Her singing is extraordinary in its radiance, power and sheer expressiveness. Her "Letter Scene" alone, beautifully staged and lighted and gloriously sung, would be reason enough to attend.

Reinhardt's Lensky is the other must-see (and hear) performance of the night - arguably a definitive Lensky. His glorious tenor has never sounded more mellow, graceful or sincere. His playing of the Act 2 argument leading to the duel is a persuasive example of acting to music. Then he caps the performance with an absolutely superb rendition of his profound Act 3 solo - also a good example of Hofstetter's sensitive conducting and the orchestra's exquisite playing enhancing the moment perfectly.

Dmitry Belosselskiy delivers Prince Gremin's touching Act 3 aria, on the late-in-life love he's found with Tatyana, with eloquent authority.

Megan Samarin displays a pleasing mezzo and presence as the capricious Olga.

Anyone with eyes or ears will surely recognize something profound in the spirit of "Eugene Onegin" - and likely agree this production is in sync with that spirit.