Opera Essentials: Eugene Onegin A guide to Tchaikovsky’s most
popular opera. Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky tells
the story of literature-loving Tatyana who falls passionately in
love with dashing and worldly Eugene Onegin. Onegin rejects her,
despite having feelings for her. His subsequent actions lead to
tragedy. Years later, believing that he is incapable of
happiness, Onegin unexpectedly meets Tatyana again… The story of
Eugene Onegin is taken from the novel in verse of the same name
by Alexander Pushkin. A singer friend of Tchaikovsky suggested
that Pushkin’s story would make a fine opera. Tchaikovsky became
so excited that he stayed awake all that night working out the
scenario. He wrote much of his libretto himself, sometimes
setting Pushkin verbatim as in Tatyana’s Letter Scene, and
occasionally (as with Prince Gremin’s aria) writing his own
text. Tchaikovsky wanted Eugene Onegin to be simple and direct
in style, very different to the grand operas so popular in the
1870s. He referred to th