Opera
Eugene Onegin
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Seven scenes about being slightly too late, staged in a house that is slowly closing itself up for winter.
Libretto The composer and Shilovsky, after PushkinSung in RussianSurtitles EnglishRunning time 3h 00mIntervals OneFirst performed 1879
Synopsis
Act I
A garden, a name-day, and a letter written in one night that will be quoted back cruelly in daylight.
Act II
A provincial ball that turns into a duel because nobody present can find a way to stop it.
Act III
Petersburg, years later. The same letter, the other way round.
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Tchaikovsky called it lyric scenes rather than an opera, and Peregrine Vashti’s production takes him at his word: seven rooms, each dismantled as it ends, so the stage is emptier every time the curtain rises.