Latvian National Opera: Eugene Onegin

 

The opera Eugene Onegin (1893), which is based on the eponymous verse novel by A. Pushkin, is a masterpiece among Tchaikovsky’s ten operas, as well as among Russian opera classics in general. A young poet Lensky is engaged with a cheerful girl Olga. While staying in the summer cottage of his fiancée, Lensky introduces his friend Onegin to his future mother‐in‐law and Olga’s sister Tatyana. Tatyana, who is a dreamer and modest by nature, falls in love with Onegin, who enjoys every pleasure life has to offer, looking down on Tatyana and her feelings for him.

 

Pushkin’s verse novel provided the composer with humane‐spiritual experience and powerful emotional dramaturgy, which was exactly what Tchaikovsky had been looking for in order to write a new opera. The opera, being melancholic, but at the same time yearning, passionate and bursting with love, offers beautiful and flowing melodies, enjoyable choruses, and captivating dance music.