But it is already completely sold out. Too bad. :-(

Thank you garrison, for sharing a moment of quiet joy with us.

Now, if only we could get that service is far-off Australia.

'the line of dialogue that bewwhanged you...Onegin's tortured regret...and Miss Fleming's bare left shoulder' to realize that you appreciate bran flakes and milk in the bowl every morning, didn't you?

but sentimental (for bran flakes, no less) escapism should not be celebrated. Mr. K has no peer in dragging everything, even art, down to the level of mediocrity.

I love bickering, but isn't there something better we all could be doing? It was an okay piece, not his usual brilliant best, but not without insight. How bored, or self important, are those who bother to kvetch. If you don't like the guy, read something else. God knows there is a universe of bloviage out there to look at.

In fact I almost posted in response to Locotus' post (before it was deleted) explaining what I liked about this article and why his post was pointless.

But is it really necessary to tell people posting negative replies that they don't have a right to? Or worse still, to censor them completely?

I don't think so. Argue for the importance of the article in question, argue against whatever criticisms the person brings up, but it's downright authoritarian to think that a negative response, no matter how crude or worthless, doesn't have the same right to be posted as any other response.

One thing I (used) to love so much about Salon was that it was 100% free of censorship. And to anyone who says that someone complaining must "have something better to do" than post on the internet, why don't you?

Bless you, Garrison Keillor, for this. I've been crazy for this opera -- only rarely performed in the West solely because of the language problem -- for years, and was thrilled the Met chose to highlight it. I'm nowhere near any of the theaters they showed it in, but listened on the radio, and thought it was mostly wonderfully done.

You totally got the core of this excruciatingly poignant tale, and of the lead singers. Pretty neat, huh?

What do you want? Renee's shoulder. What do you get? Your wife's knee. So praise be to your wife's knee and let's write about it.

What do you want? The red carpet. What do you have? The quiet writer's life. So praise be and let's write an article about it.

This is a recurrent theme in Mr. Keillor's articles. Making lemons into lemonade. Bitterness turned to a sweet drink.

I just have a hard time believing Mr. Keillor when he says he's had another epiphany that has revealed to him a new appreciation for what he has as opposed to what he could have. How many times can you have the same epiphany?

Seriously Garrison,

What's with the navel gazing all the time? If you're not getting worked up about the President then you're distilling beauty from the image of snowflakes gently falling whilst a naked ballerina twirls on stage and a viola draws out a low D.

Snow sucks. It's cold and it makes your testes shrink. And art sucks. It's boring.

Now that GK is out of the closet as an opera fan, perhaps we can hear some opera on APHC. America once enjoyed touring opera companies, visiting places like Mobile, AL and Charleston SC. Now all GK can do in Minnesota is watch a film....

Mr. Keillor could have mentioned in closing that having your car start while it is snowing is a habit that generates great happiness.

I just love the way Garrison thinks! He is truly our great cultural thermometer... along the lines of Will Rogers tempered by Walt Whitman... He sure hears America singing!

His take today on Eugen Onegin was so fine it brought tears. And made me regret not paying my 19 bucks and taking the afternoon 30 miles away to the AMC. I did listen to that glorious opera by way of another miracle, over the internet in the comfort of my study here in rural Texas....

Also thankful that my Grandmother kept her copies of those thick, one-sided old 78's of Caruso and Galicurci and all the singers first recorded my Mr Edison's machines so I could grow up hearing them on the gramaphone with the cactus needle of my youth! Some 30 years after they were made!!!

I have had a pleasure to see Eugene Onegin both in Bolshoy and now in the Met. While singing and acting was exceptionally superb for the whole cast (including Ms. Fleming's excellent Russian), I did not care much for the stage art direction. Empty walls were artfully lighted, creating pictures of morning, night and winter when neccessary. While for the few fleeting moments the effect was stunning, it felt empty and not quite fitting for the Russian opera most of the time. I have a few problems with this production and here they are.

1. There are two ball scenes in the opera, one in the Larin's house, which is a modest one and the other, in the last act, in a regal palace. Usually the contrast between the two in emphasized, because it is an important part of change of heart in Onegin. Here, both balls were pictured by rows of chairs around the dancing people. And though there was some difference in costumes and chairs, still, the contrast was completely lost.

2. The choir was wearing beige-grey clothes, which is not possible for Russian peasants, people would be dressed in bright saraphans (traditional dresses) under the circumstances. And also, it seems that they were portraying the religious ceremony which usually takes place in winter, when it was fall in the opera. It was supposed to be harvest ceremony! Researching a bit more is always a good idea with historical productions.

3. My main grudge is the use of a wonderful piece of music, namely the polonaise dance, which was employed quite unusually here. Habitually in Russian production it is the beginning of the ball and splendidly dressed dancers take to the stage for the final act. Here, the warm body of Lensky was still on the stage, while the group of valets helped to dress Onegin for the ball. I admit that Mr.Hvorostovsky is marvellously fit, but I think that Tchaikovsky would have been shocked beyond belief to find out that instead of dancing we have been treated to the view of Mr.Hvorostovsky's abs during that piece of music. And only somewhere in the middle of the dressing scene poor Mr.Vargas is finally carried off stage.

4. Most of people at the ball in the final act are dressed in black. I understand that it serves the purpose for one of the lighting moments, since the contrast is better and for another fleeting moment we are treated to a pretty silouette picture. But for the most of the scene it reminds of the funeral way too much. Especially when the duet of dancers in absolutely black outfits takes to the stage in lively mazurka. There is no way they would have been wearing black during the real ball!

And finally, the little issue of the beret. I do not consider it a problem, but I laughed out loud, it was one of those funny little theater moments one remebers forever. When Onegin sees Tatiana in the last act, during the ball, he is asking, literally in Russian, "who is it, the one wearing the raspberry colored beret while talking to the Spanish ambassador?" It is a well known line since the famous work of Pushkin is the basis of this opera. Of course, in some productions Tatiana does not wear a beret, which was the case here. Kudos to Mr.Hvorostovsky, who did not blindly sing about the non-existing beret and changed the line to "who is it, the one without the beret, talking to the Spanish ambassador?" I could not help chuckling, because in the Bolshoy production they still sang about beret when there was none.

This is not to say that I did not enjoy the production, but it could have been even more splendid. In any case it was a pleasure to see it, or rather to listen to it. I wish Tchaykovsky's operas were staged a bit more often, they are such a treat. I am hoping for a DVD or at least a CD of this production, because it is not often that such an exceptional group of singers is united together.

Thanks to Garrison for bringing this up.