OPERA: Eugene Onegin with Mariusz Kwiecien and Piotr Beczala

The eighth season of Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to over 1,950 movie theaters in 64 countries, begins October 5 with acclaimed new production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Anna Netrebko opens her third consecutive Met season in her company role debut as Tatiana, the naïve heroine from Pushkin's classic novel. Mariusz Kwiecien portrays the self-confident title character, in a much-admired interpretation he has sung in many of the world's leading opera houses, and Piotr Beczala reprises his acclaimed performance as Onegin's friend-turned-rival, Lenski.

Cutting straight to the heart of the work, director Deborah Warner shows how Onegin is simultaneously about two colliding Russian societies—rustic provincialism and cosmopolitan decadence—and three wasted lives.

Onegin's aria ("Kogda bi zhizn") from Act I of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin." Mariusz Kwiecien (Onegin). Video courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera

Excerpt from Lenski's aria ("Kuda, kuda") from Act II of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin."
Piotr Beczala (Lenski). Video courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera