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"Onegin" in His Native Language: An Interview with Nathan Gunn

Mary Ellyn Hutton
Posted: Jul 9, 2011 - 4:54:08 PM in news_2011

Nathan-Gunn-Sharkey-Photography.jpg
Nathan Gunn

Eugene Onegin is not a stranger to Cincinnati.

He was here in 1984, but he spoke a different language then.

He’s back this week at Music Hall, title character in Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin,” and he will be heard in his native Russian this time.

It will be Cincinnati Opera’s second “Eugene Onegin” -- the first was in November, 1984 in English -- but its first opera sung in Russian.  The only other Russian opera performed by Cincinnati Opera, Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov,” was sung once in English and twice in Italian.  Moscow-born soprano Tatiana Monogarova sings Tatyana, the provincial girl who falls for Onegin, is rejected by him and when he finally confesses his love for her, is married to someone else and refuses to dishonor her vows.

Starring as Onegin, crushed in turn by Tatyana, is baritone Nathan Gunn, a dyed-in-the-wool Midwesterner who has sung Russian opera with singers from the Bolshoi (Prokofiev’s “War and Peace” in 2000 at the Opera Bastille in Paris ).

“It’s a very challenging language,” he said.  “When I was in college, I studied Russian for a couple of semesters, not nearly enough, but it was handy.”  The first and “easiest” thing to do, he said, is to learn the Cyrillic alphabet.  “It’s a phonetic language, though there are a few things that are never written into it -- which, if you’re not a native speaker, is kind of annoying, because you’re not sure what the actual vowel sound is.”

Beyond that, Gunn has spent a lot of time working with Russian coaches, “translating everything word for word to make sure I understand exactly what is being said and working on diction.  It’s something we do a great deal in this industry.”

Onegin is a role debut for Gunn.  This, too, is not new for him, since he has “a huge commitment” to new music.  “What I tell myself is that at one point, the people who were singing Puccini and Verdi were modern music singers.  They took a risk and went out and sang their stuff, Mozart, too.  Somebody else might have said ‘I can’t stand this kind of music.  I think I’ll stick with Monteverdi or Salieri.’”

Gunn, 40, who grew up in South Bend, Indiana, has premiered roles in operas by Daren Hagen (“Amelia”), Andre Previn (“Brief Encounter”), Peter Eötvös (“Love and Other Demons”) and Tobias Picker (“An American Tragedy”).  One of the busiest baritones on the circuit, he insists on a certain amount of down time at home in Illinois with his wife, pianist Julie Jordan Gunn, and their five children.  “I love the Midwest.  I wouldn’t live anywhere else.  I fly into Chicago and I’m like, oohh, it’s gray and cold, and I’m like, yes.”

Possessor of a warm, lyric baritone -- which in addition to his acting skills, good looks and strapping physique,  has made him the model for a new breed of matinee idol baritones -- Gunn is similarly committed to musical theater and recording.  He has a new album of popular songs, “Just Before Sunrise,” and in 2012, will sing Gaylord Ravenal in Jerome Kern’s “Showboat” at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

“My teacher (William Miller) lived and worked when radio was king.  He sang on the Carnation Breakfast Hour in Chicago.  He would sing oratorio and he would sing opera.  There was a time when there wasn’t such a big difference.  A singing hero of mine, John Charles Thomas, sang vaudeville.  He sang tons of new music, he sang at the Met, he sang on Broadway.  The one common denominator in all the songs I do is that there’s always a line to it.”

The combination of singing, acting and being physically fit are all part of the preparation for being an opera singer, said Gunn, who holds a teaching position at the University of Illinois in Champaign and tours as a recitalist with his wife (their last appearance in Cincinnati was at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in October, 2009) .  “I try to teach my students, it’s not about looking good, it’s about being able to do whatever the director wants you to do.  It’s about being able to create a role.  Boy, some of the things we’re asked to do onstage while singing is really physically demanding.”

Onegin the man is “complicated,” said Gunn.  “I do not think he is a villain.  I think he is honestly a regular person who has wrapped himself up in the societal rules of his time.  He uses courtly manners and polite behavior to live a life where you don’t really get to know him.  He doesn’t know himself until the final scene, where you actually see what’s underneath the veneer.  He uses his position in society, the fact that he is for the most part a stranger to people, as a weapon in order to amuse himself and protect himself, and it backfires.”

Everything in the opera is “off by just a little bit,” said Gunn, who first sang in Cincinnati at the 1997 May Festival (Brahms Requiem under Robert Shaw). “Everything is shifted slightly, and that creates huge problems.  If Onegin had just been kind, it would have been different.  If Tatyana hadn’t written her letter after their first meeting and maybe waited a couple of weeks until the second meeting, it could have been different.  If he hadn’t pushed it with Lensky at the party, flirting with Lensky’s girlfriend, and Lensky hadn’t over-reacted, it would have been different.  If he hadn’t gone away for five years, Tatyana wouldn’t have been married and maybe it could have worked out.”

Is Onegin cold hearted?  Gunn doesn’t think so.  “There are a few lines in the opera that reveal a bit about him and his past and the fact that he has a lot in common with Tatyana.  There is an attraction there.  Did he embarrass himself by confessing his love to a woman and it was unrequited and that’s why he has become the way he is?  I think he is protecting himself and spreading that same poison to Tatyana.”

Nathan Gunn sings the title role in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday (July 14 and 16) at Music Hall.  Tatiana Monogarova is Tatyana, with William Burden as Lensky, Edyta Kulczak as Olga, Stacey Rishoi as Madame Larina, Mika Shigamatsu as Filippyevna, Denis Sedov as Prince Gremin, Steven Cole as Monsieur Triquet, Thomas Dreeze as Zaretsky, Casey Leach as Guillot, Tyler Alessi as the Captain and Wesley Lawrence as the Peasant. Vasily Petrenko conducts the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  Mark Streshinsky directs.  Set in the period (late 18th century Russia), the production is from Indiana University Opera Theatre.  Tickets are $29-$160.  Call (513) 241-2742, or order online at www.cincinnatiopera.org