Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin | Grange Park Opera

Based on the novel in rhyming verse by Alexander Pushkin

Tatyana, a dreamer, falls in love with the glamorous Onegin whose arrogance conceals an inability to love. The peaceful household is destroyed when Onegin kills his friend Lensky in a duel. Years pass and Onegin once again meets Tatyana, now married to an elderly prince. Her poise and elegance entrance Onegin. But he has missed his moment.

Onegin's turbulence reflects Tchaikovsky's own state of mind in the months of his short marriage and the resulting mental breakdown.

First performance Maly Theatre, Moscow, March 1879

Sung in Russian with surtitles