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Eugene Onegin
Sign in to saveopera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Key facts
- Description
- lyrical scenes
- Native title
- Russian : Евгений Онегин
- Librettist
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Konstantin Shilovsky
- Language
- Russian
- Based on
- Eugene Onegin , by Alexander Pushkin
- Premiere
- 29 March 1879 ( 1879-03-29 ) , Maly Theatre , Moscow
via Wikipedia infobox
~19 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Eugene Onegin (Russian: Евгений Онегин, romanized: Yevgény Onégin, IPA: [jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈnʲeɡʲɪn] ), Op. 24, is an opera (designated as "lyrical scenes") in 3 acts (7 scenes), composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto, organised by the composer himself, very closely follows certain passages in Alexander Pushkin's 1825–1832 novel in verse, retaining much of his poetry. Tchaikovsky's friend Konstantin Shilovsky contributed M. Triquet's verses in Act 2, Scene 1, while Tchaikovsky himself arranged the text for Lensky's arioso in Act 1, Scene 1, and almost all of Prince Gremin's aria in Act 3, Scene 1.
Eugene Onegin is a well-known example of lyric opera, to which Tchaikovsky added music of a dramatic nature. The story concerns a selfish hero who lives to regret his blasé rejection of a young woman's love and his careless incitement of a fatal duel with his best friend.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Eugene Onegin” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.