Eugene Onegin, the most popular of Tehaikovsky’s operas, is widely considered a theatrical masterpiece. Adapted from a novel in verse form by Aleksandr Pushkin, it is the tale of a jaded Russian aristocrat who scorns the love of Tatyana, an attractive yonng girl of the provincial petty nobility. After years of aimless wandering, Onegin returns to St. Petersburg to find Tatyana much changed and married to a prince. Onegin falls in love, but this time she rejects him in favor of marital fidelity.

Eugene Onegin, the most popular of Tehaikovsky’s operas, is widely considered a theatrical masterpiece. Adapted from a novel in verse form by Aleksandr Pushkin, it is the tale of a jaded Russian aristocrat who scorns the love of Tatyana, an attractive yonng girl of the provincial petty nobility. After years of aimless wandering, Onegin returns to St. Petersburg to find Tatyana much changed and married to a prince. Onegin falls in love, but this time she rejects him in favor of marital fidelity.

The theme and treatment of Pushkin’s text so strongly appealed to Tehaikovsky that he devoted himself to the opera’s execution with single-minded fervor, drawing the libretto from the poet’s own lines as far as possible. The composer’s passionate attachment to the work was undoubtedly interlocked with analogous events in his private life: at the time of the opera’s creation Tehaikovsky was involved in a disastrous marriage that swiftly led to his emotional breakdown.

Today, Eugene Onegin is a staple of the operatic repertoire, moving audiences everywhere with its richly melodic score and imaginative orchestration. Musicians and music lovers will welcome this inexpensive high-quality edition, reprinted from an authoritative early score.

ACT ONE

Prelude (orchestra)  

FIRST TABLEAU: A garden in the Larins’ country estate

 1. Duet and Quartet (Tatyana, Olga; the same, with Larina, Nurse [Filipievnal) 

 2. Peasants’ Chorus and Dance (Chorus, Larina)  

 3. Scena and Olga’s Aria (Tatyana, Olga)  

 4. Scena (Larina, Nurse, Tatyana, Chorus, Olga)  

 5. Scena and Quartet (Lensky, Onegin, Larina; Onegin and Tatyana, Olga and Lensky) 

 6. Scena and Lensky’s Arioso (the same) 

 7. Concluding Scena (Larina, Nurse, Lensky, Onegin) 

SECOND TABLEAU: Tatyana’s room

 8. Introduction and Scena with Nurse (Nurse, Tatyana) 

 9. Letter Scene (Tatyana) 

10. Scena and Duet (Tatyana, Nurse) 

THIRD TABLEAU: Another place in the Larins’ garden

11. Girls’Chorus  

12. Scena and Onegin’s Aria (Tatyana, Onegin, Girls’ Chorus)

ACT TWO

FIRST TABLEAU: The Larins’ ballroom on the occasion of Tatyana’s name day

13. Entr’acte and Waltz with Scena and Chorus (Chorus, Captain, Onegin, Lensky) 

14. Scena and Triquet’s Song (Lensky, Olga, Onegin, Girls’Chorus; Triguet, Chorus)

15. Mazurka and Scena (Captain, Onegin, Lensky, Chorus) 

16. Finale (Lensky, Onegin, Tatyana, Chorus, Olga, Larina) 

SECOND TABLEAU: The duelling field-near a country mill by a stream

17. Introduction, Scena and Lensky’s Aria (Zaretsky, Lense) 

18. Duel Scene (Zaretsky, Onegin, Lensky, Guillot)

ACT THREE

FIRST TABLEAU: A room in a fashionable St. Petersburg home

19. Polonaise (orchestra) 

20. Scena, Ecossaise [II* and Prince Gremin’s Aria (Onegin, Chorus, Tatyana, Gremin)

21. Scena and Onegin’s Arioso; Ecossaise [Ill (Grernin, Tatyana, Onegin) 

SECOND TABLEAU: Prince Gremin’s drawing room

22. Concluding Scene (Tatyana, Onegin)