"I 2011 iscenesatte nordmanden Stefan Herheim operaen, så historien får en endnu dybere menneskelig dimension. Ikke mindst fordi danske Bo Skovhus synger og spiller titelpartiet ... Bo Skovhus fremstiller og synger denne ulykkelige skikkelse med uhyggelig psykologisk præcision ... Det musikalske niveau er højt med Mariss Jansons i orkestergraven samme med Concertgebouw"

"Young Norwegian director Stefan Herheim sees the opera as a representation of memories ... All the action on stage is retrospective ... I suspect that this would be impossible to follow if you didn't know the opera beforehand. More important, it doesn't work psychologically ... A spectacular staging, a kaleidoscopic visual feast, brilliantly set and brilliantly choreographed ... A good thing, too, since the singing is not especially engaging ... Despite the beauty and control of his voice, Bo Skovhus seems dramatically adrift ... Star of the evening is the conductor Mariss Jansons ... Neither are enough, though, to rescue the evening"

"Memories and fantasies, in olden and moderne times, all mingle and collide in this Stefan Herheim production ... that insists on anything but a straightforward retelling of the Pushkin-based Tchaikovsky opera ... Mariss Jansons gives a strong-pulsed, unsentimental reading ... while the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra truly gives the opera the regal treatment. Many of Herheim's staging ideas wouldn't work without a singer as physically adept as Bo Skovhus, but what a treat to hear an appealing, soft-grained version of his voice in the title-role"

"Forget any sense of intimacy ... director Stephan Herheim's approach is one of kaleidoscopic excess ... With more focus, it might have worked. But even viewers familiar with Pushkin's relatively straightforward story will find themselves puzzled by motivation and meaning ... No doubt about it, though, this is musically world-class ... The singers are vocally near ideal ... Bo Skovhus projects the necessary charisma sometimes lacking from Onegin"