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Ken Smith

Since its first Hong Kong appearance in 2017 with the Asian premiere of The Makropulos Case, the National Theatre Brno has twice been awarded festival of the year for its Janacek Brno Festival at the International Opera Awards in 2018 and 2025, and best new production for The Excursions of Mr Broucek in 2025.
The thread connecting these distinctions is the modernist Leos Janacek (1854-1928), who spent most of his life in Brno, in the Czech Republic, and whose often-bracing music the company performs with a familiarity as recognisable to audiences as an idiosyncratic neighbour.
This year, with the National Theatre headlining its return to Hong Kong with Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin – the opera’s first appearance at the Hong Kong Arts Festival – it turns out the company’s deeply personal approach with Janacek remains highly transferable.
Even in the best of productions, Onegin can be an awkward fit on the opera stage. Alexander Pushkin’s original novel can be summarised in a couple of sentences. A cynical aristocrat spurns the feelings of a naive young girl and kills his best friend in a senseless duel. Years later, he returns to find the young girl is now an elegant, married socialite who rejects him in kind.

While few have ever criticised Tchaikovsky’s score – a near-flawless blend of solo, ensemble and choral singing with exquisite orchestration – the composer felt the story lacked drama.
On stage, the director’s touch becomes crucial: too heavy and the characters dissolve into disagreeable stereotypes; too light and the story loses convincing characterisations entirely.
Martin Glaser, the National Theatre Brno’s general director and the stage director of this production, finds a sensitive balance. Onegin may be the title character, but the focus is arguably on Tatyana, the bookish country girl who later becomes a sophisticated society woman.
There are others involved, to be sure. Onegin’s ill-fated friend Lensky brings everyone together through his pursuit of Tatyana’s younger sister Olga, whose mischievous flirting with Onegin leads to his duel with Lensky.
The young Tatyana is flanked by a protective mother; the adult Tatyana is supported by her military husband. The principal narrative, though, revolves around Onegin and Tatyana and their reversal of fortunes.












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The fine supporting cast on March 21 featured Ales Briscein’s Lensky, bright and perky almost to annoyance, and Jana Hrochova’s Olga, whose credible immaturity in teasing Lensky made up for a dusky vocal quality that sounded a bit too developed for a younger sister. Daniela Strakova-Sedrlova and David Szendiuch, as Tatyana’s mother and husband, respectively, admirably filled the single dimension of their roles.
Dramatically, though, the evening appropriately turned not merely on Onegin and Tatyana but rather the contrast in the performers’ vocal delivery. Instead of the usual depiction of a callous scoundrel, Roman Hoza’s Onegin tried his best to be honourable, despite lacking either the empathy to deal with a young girl’s crush or the courage to call off a duel with an irate friend.
Hoza managed that transformation almost entirely through vocal colour, at first dark and brooding, then much brighter during his flirtations with Olga before descending into a frenzy of desperation upon his return.
Aiste Piliba’s Tatyana, by contrast, focused on her character’s core rather than its momentary surface, with hints of mature grace already evident in the young girl even as the adult lady retained vestiges of innocence.

Conductor Robert Kruzik led the orchestra and chorus with pulses of pure vitality surging beneath the music’s lush exterior. Visually, the evening unfolded through Pavel Borak’s efficiently minimalist set, which, like a proverbial little black dress, could be transformed into a ballroom or a young girl’s sleeping quarters with simple adjustments. A well-placed mirror served as a frequent reminder that much of the story unfolds as interior monologues.
“There are no heroes in real life,” Tatyana’s mother explained, taking a novel from her young daughter’s hands. Turns out there are not many villains either – only thwarted dreams and bad decisions whose consequences can haunt us for the rest of our lives.
By the standards of opera, it is not exactly death by consumption, a leap from a precipice or a mortal stabbing. But as personal tragedies go, it is probably something more of us can relate to.
“National Theatre Brno – Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin”, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre. Reviewed: March 21.


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Curtain call by the National Theatre Brno after its performance of Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin at the 2026 Hong Kong Arts Festival on March 21. Photo: courtesy of Hong Kong Arts Festival

A scene from the production of Eugene Onegin during the 2026 Hong Kong Arts Festival. This photo was taken on March 19 and features a different cast from the March 21 performance reviewed. Photo: Patrik Borecky

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National Theatre Brno’s Eugene Onegin at the Hong Kong Arts Festival centred on Tatyana and featured lush music and a minimalist set


National Theatre Brno’s Eugene Onegin at the Hong Kong Arts Festival centred on Tatyana and featured lush music and a minimalist set.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}National Theatre Brno’s Eugene Onegin at the Hong Kong Arts Festival centred on Tatyana and featured lush music and a minimalist set

National Theatre Brno’s Eugene Onegin at the Hong Kong Arts Festival centred on Tatyana and featured lush music and a minimalist set