(Credit: Yan Bleney)

Étienne Dupuis and Nicole Car will no longer be participating in Santa Fe Opera’s production of “Eugene Onegin.”

Per a social media post, Dupuis noted that the two were set to perform and were well on the way of getting their visas approved to travel to Santa Fe. They had an appointment with the American consulate in Paris to obtain a National Interest Exemption but were promptly denied.

“Based on what? We will never know… Bureaucracy does not look very far you see. Covid-19. Boom, stay home,” Dupuis wrote. He added that “I do care about being able to resume work someday, I care about being able to say something, through art, to connect again with our dear audiences, old and new. I care about meeting old and new friends! And I care about common sense. Tonight we are sad. As despite being both APPROVED AND DENIED, Nicole and I would have just simply loved to reconnect with the world, live, from Santa Fe.”

In their stead, Lucas Meachem will take on the title role in the Tchaikovsky opera while Sara Jakubiak will take on Tatiana.