Lighting Designer

She loved him at first sight. But Onegin, an aristocrat obsessed with appearances, could never be happy with a country girl like Tatyana. Or so he thought. Emotions run high in Tchaikovsky's drama Eugene Onegin, based on Alexander Pushkin's deeply human story.  Gorgeous sweeping melodies melt the heart, making this one of opera's most romantic masterpieces—from Tatyana's ardent letter scene to the intense final duet as Tatyana and Onegin fight for their emotional lives.

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Eugene Onegin

Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky never had any illusions about the subject he wished to set to music for his fifth opera, Evgeny Onegin by Alexander Pushkin. On several occasions, he shows himself aware of the presence of “very few stage effects, very little action” in a libretto made up of many “lyric scenes” (as he would later subtitle the opera) depicting life in 19th-century Russia, from jam-making in the countryside to a searing farewell dialogue in a palace in Saint Petersburg. What interests him is the powerful “inner drama” so well expressed in Pushkin’s verses—verses that he largely preserves. He is interested in the characters and their human condition: Onegin’s restlessness, Lensky’s “poet’s soul,” and above all the feelings that stir a woman: “I am in love,” he confesses, “with the character of Tatiana.” Anyone familiar with Tchaikovsky’s life can imagine why he felt so close to this melancholic girl, noble in spirit and destined to see all the love overflowing from her remain unfulfilled. It is no coincidence that the “Letter Scene,” in which she is the protagonist, is considered one of the composer’s peaks, capable here of expressing through music a whirlwind of otherwise inexpressible emotions. Yet every detail of this opera is of such beauty that, contrary to expectations, it has become Tchaikovsky’s most frequently performed work since its premiere in 1879.

Lighting Designer

Christine Binder

Events

Upcoming events

15 - 29 Jun, 2027

Eugene Onegin · Teatro Regio Torino

Past events

Sep 25 - Oct 14, 2022

Eugene Onegin · San Francisco Opera

About

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