Konstantin Shilovsky

Inspired by Pushkin's masterpiece of Russian literature, Tchaikovsky’s opera provides a sublime portrait – both ironic and sympathetic – of a character embittered by society life, rejecting love out of vanity, killing his friend the poet Lenski out of pride and spending the rest of his days in abject despair. A repertoire classic, Willy Decker’s streamlined production makes the Paris Opera echo once more to the strains of Russian romantic music. Edward Gardner conducts an exceptional cast including Peter Mattei in the title role and Anna Netrebko as Tatiana.

The imperious Onegin rejects naive Tatiana's proposal of love and also incites a duel with his best friend turned rival Lenski (Piotr Beczala). This sets the scene for a dramatic story of love, loyalty and betrayal. Acclaimed theatre director Deborah Warner presents this lavish new interpretation of the timeless tale. Set in the 19th century and moving episodically from farmhouse to ballroom, the production culminates in an unforgettable finale set during a snowstorm.

Live performance from the Komische Oper Berlin, February 15 2016.

Live performance by the Bolshoi Theatre at the Palais Garnier, Opéra National de Paris, 2008.

Tchaikovsky’s many moods—tender, grand, melancholy—are all given free rein in Eugene Onegin. The opera is based on Pushkin’s iconic verse novel, which reimagines the Byronic romantic anti-hero as the definitive bored Russian aristocrat caught between convention and ennui; Tchaikovsky, similarly, took Western European operatic forms and transformed them into an authentic and undeniably Russian work. At the core of the opera is the young girl Tatiana, who grows from a sentimental adolescent into a complete woman in one of the operatic stage’s most convincing character developments.

The cynical young Onegin rejects Tatyana, a dreamy, bookish country girl. But Onegin lives to regret it when, years later, he re-encounters Tatyana, now a beautiful, worldly woman who has married into wealthy society. Tchaikovsky clothed this tale in the Romantic theatrical, domestic, and ballroom music of the story’s milieu, in and around St. Petersburg circa 1820. Graham Vick’s staging.

Live performance for Garsington Opera, June-July, 2016.

Tchaikovsky's much-loved opera Eugene Onegin, a story of love, rejection and tragedy based on Pushkin's verse drama of the same name.