Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowsky

Eugene Onegin

Tchaikovsky wrote 'Eugene Onegin' in 1878, using a libretto by Konstantin Shilovsky based on the epic poem by Pushkin. Flirtatious Olga and shy, bookish Tatyana are sisters, Olga being happily engaged to Lenski. One day Lenski arrives with a friend, Eugene Onegin, and Tatyana is smitten. She writes him a letter, but he rudely rebuffs her and she is devastated. At the dance that night he dances with Olga, making Lenski jealous also. They fight a duel in which Lenski is killed.

Six years later, Tatyana has become a beauty and married Prince Gremin, unbeknownst to Onegin who has become a wanderer. Onegin enters Gremin's house for a party, sees Tatyana, falls in love and pleads with her to come with him but Tatyana, though confessing she still loves him, refuses him - she is married. Eugene is left alone and heartbroken.

This is the Schirmer edition of the Vocal Score, in an English translation by Henry Reese.