Opera review: Scottish Opera - Eugene Onegin

First entrances are key moments in theatre. Oliver Mears, in his much-anticipated new production for Scottish Opera of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, takes a risk with his title hero, whose Act I entrance happens astride a real live horse. Unfortunately, horses do what horses do, and this one chose its big centre-stage moment on opening night to make the grandest of gestures, releasing, over what seemed an eternity, the considerable contents of its bowels, to which the audience could only roar with uncontrollable laughter.