WARNING OF COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS1

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of the copyright materials.

Under certain conditions specified in the law, library and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than in private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

The Yale University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order, if, in its judgement fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.

137 C.F.R. §201.14 2018 OPERA 101

A COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING

AND LOVING OPERA

FRED PLOTKIN lit

nI' 11-

NEW YORK EUGENE ONEGIN • 297 • . • and an outsider; he was an individual against society as compared with the Enlightenment hero, an individual who enjoyed freedom in society. 10. Love, the most universal human feeling, has been described by poets and artists since the beginning of time. Lovers may be in love, but they may not be able to understand or explain it. Through the EUGENE ONEGIN centuries, love has been explained in political and religious terms, in erotic or Platonic, tragic or comic terms. In the middle of this cen- ROMANTIC OPERA tury, prior to the so-called sexual revolution, much love was defined as forbidden love. Nowadays, artists, writers, and musicians often express love in terms of the inability of lovers to communicate; love, therefore, is diminished or denied because it cannot be expressed. In other circumstances some of us politicize love in search of the right to express it. Love in the era of Romanticism was idealized and made noble in s you know, Romanticism was the great artistic movement both its exalted and tragic contexts. Lucia di Lammermoor is a of the nineteenth century. Two works that we have studied, prime example of Romanticism's tragic view of love. Tannhäuser, ALucia di Lammermoor and Les Contes d'Ho ffmann, are which we will study later, uses the redemptive power of love to suffused with Romantic images and ideals. Whether in music, litera- bring peace to tormented characters. ture, or the visual arts, Romanticism emphasized a departure from In our first six operas and most others you will ever encounter, the values of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, which love serves to color relationships between characters. There is pater- favored reason in philosophy and classicism in literature, music, nal/filial love between Rigoletto and Gilda, who also has a virginal and the visual arts. With Romanticism, instinct became preferable love for the licentious Duke. There is jealous, erotic love between to reason. Fantasy and sentiment became exalted virtues in the cre- Tosca and Mario and idealized, unrequited love between Lucia and ative artist. Emotionalism replaced the sharpened wit that charac- Edgardo. " Rosina and Almaviva have a playful, flirtatious love. terized the temperament of the eighteenth century. Country life and Donna Anna and Don Ottavio have a sterile love; Donna Elvira is pastoral settings were a popular theme among the romantics, as filled with wild, obsessive, hormonal love. Don Giovanni, the fa- were dreams and the supernatural. mous lover, is a narcissist who really only loves himself; his claim to One of the things that lay underneath the grand theories of Ro- love all women is actually a means to see his own reflection in them. manticism was a change in attitudes about the nature of love. Hoffmann's loves are blind, unrealistic, or doomed. Beethoven's Fi- Romanticism, for many people, represented a return to simpler delio is a paean to marital love. In all of these operas, the love times and more traditional ways of love. Many Romantics consid- among various characters is part of a larger context in which the ered Don Giovanni one of the first works of their movement, insist- stories are built. Love is a given that then serves to push the story in ing that it was a moral fable about loveless sexual excess. While other directions. For example, the fact that Gilda loves the Duke Romanticism might be viewed as a fundamentally conservative leads to the opera's inevitable tragic conclusion. movement, there were Romantics, such as Wagner, who were rebel- Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin is a rather special opera. In it, love lious. To some artists and thinkers, a Romantic hero was a rebel is the theme, not a pretext for launching the action. Its characters 298 • OPERA 101 EUGENE ONEGIN • 299 and situations are all about the many aspects of love. In other 1877. The marriage quickly failed; Tchaikovsky suffered a nervous words, love is the reason we care about these characters and what collapse and himself attempted suicide. Somehow, though, none of happens to them. Eugene Onegin was written by a composer who this turmoil impeded the composition of Eugene Onegin. drank deeply at the well of Western European culture. Tchaikovsky As with the echoes of Offenbach's life in Les Contes d'Hoffmann (1840-1893) loved Italy and the music of Mozart and was exposed and the sad coincidence of Donizetti's going insane a few years after to most of the artistic currents of his time. Yet he never disregarded composing Lucia, there is a special poignancy when the tragic his profound Russian roots and the special, highly sentimental way events in the life of a composer parallel those of an opera he has that Russian literature and music could express love. created. We cannot help wondering how much of his own life and His opera was inspired by a poem by Alexander Pushkin (1799- feelings he brought to a role. Did his sufferings make for greater art? 1837), which was written in 1831, in the early years of the Roman- This is what we asked ourselves about the character of Hoffmann. tic movement. Tchaikovsky first approached the subject forty-six And this is what Tosca reflects on when she sings "Vissi d'arte, vissi years later. While Pushkin wrote the poem with cold, ironic detach. d'amore" ("I lived for art, I lived for love"). ment, making Onegin almost a Don Giovanni—type antihero, Tchai- Tchaikovsky understood the anguish and the bliss of love even if kovsky found different elements in the story and imbued it with he did not achieve much happiness in his own love life. This is why warmth and pathos. Pushkin's writings come from deep in the Rus- he could read the rather ironic language of Pushkin's poem and find sian soul and are as well known to Russians as Shakespeare is to the passion and longing in it. So taken with it was he that he sat down in British. Pushkin provided literary sources for many great Russian one feverish night after reading it and composed Tatyana's famous composers, including Glinka (Ruslan and Ludmilla), Tchaikovsky letter scene even though he had not yet sketched the form of the (Mazeppa, The Queen of Spades), Mussorgsky (Boris Godunov, opera in musical and dramatic terms. It was this scene that struck a probably the greatest Russian opera), and Rimsky-Korsakov (The chord of recognition in the composer, who at the time was receiving Golden Cockerel, Mozart and Salieri). missives from Antonina Milyukova. Pushkin had a lot in common with Onegin; he was bright and Tchaikovsky realized that some of the language in the poem dashing but became very jaded and cynical. Coincidentally, he died could provide the direct speech in key passages for the libretto, but in a duel, as does the poet Lensky, Onegin's friend and rival in the the narrative voice of the poem had to be removed and replaced by story. Tchaikovsky identified less with Onegin than with Lensky dialogue among the various characters. The composer entrusted the and Tatyana, the heroine of the opera. She is someone who suffers job to Konstantin Shilovsky, although he later made substantial from a yearning to love someone who rejects her. Lensky, who is a changes and additions to Shilovsky's text. He also realized that this relatively ordinary person in the poem, in the opera is the incarna- would not be an opera in the traditional sense but a series of what he tion of doomed creative talent. Tchaikovsky felt strongly about called "lyric scenes." In fact, the score refers to Eugene Onegin as both characters and their longings. He was struck by the fact that "lyric scenes in three acts." Although there is a dramatic progres- important events in his life in the late 1870s coincided with inci- sion to the story, each of the "lyric scenes" is richly suffused with a dents in the opera. He was receiving passionate love letters from a distinct mood and flavor. It is the composer's great achievement young woman, Antonina Milyukova, whom he scarcely knew. One- that he manages to evoke in music the emotional feelings of longing gin rejects Tatyana's declarations of love with tragic consequences. and repressed desire that are central to the characters. Notice Tchaikovsky felt that if he rejected Milyukova, she would commit throughout the opera how the sounds from the orchestra and the suicide (as she threatened to do in one of her letters). The composer, voices are different than what you have heard before. The scale of who was a homosexual, decided to marry the young woman in July this opera is very intimate and opens up only in the dance sequences. 300 • OPERA 101 EUGENE ONEGIN • 301

Otherwise, we have characters who speak of their feelings or, in Maly (Little) Theater at the Moscow Conservatory and mostly many instances, withhold them. The orchestral accompaniment is starred students at the school. Its premiere, on March 29, 1879, was often very delicate. a general success. (We might speculate that the talented young per- Why is there so much repression of feelings among the charac- formers embodied the roles well and were able to experience the ters? These characters imitate the social mores of provincial Russia emotions of the characters even if they could not analyze them. of the 1820s. In other words, they role-play, adopting the behaviors What older artists bring to their roles is knowledge born of experi- they believe are expected of them. Only in their most private or nce.) A couple of years after its premiere, Eugene Onegin had a e vulnerable moments do we see how they really feel. very successful production at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. The Romanticism pervades the opera. There are fantasy (if not the title role was taken by the young baritone Pavel Khoklov, whom "fantastic" that we have in Les Contes d'Hoffmann), melancholy, Tchaikovsky considered an ideal blend of vocalism, interpretation, dreamy bucolic settings, and glorification of the simple ways of appearance, and temperament. The opera soon traveled to the West, peasants and gentry. Acts I and II are set in the countryside, which including an 1892 production in Hamburg, where Tchaikovsky met lends a flavor to the music and to the way we perceive the charac- the young conductor Gustav Mahler. During this period, Mahler ters. In contrast, Act III takes place in the sophisticated and some- was at work on his highly emotional Second Symphony, and one what jaded ambience of upper-class St. Petersburg. wonders whether the deep sentiments of Eugene Onegin influenced When the curtain rises, however, we are in the country. Madame its composition. Larina is surrounded by her devoted servant Filipyevna, who is also The recording we will use to learn this opera is very fine. Its one nanny to Larina's daughters, seventeen-year-old Tatyana and her failing is that it has only one native Russian speaker in the cast— younger sister, Olga. Olga is courted by the eighteen-year-old Paata Burchuladze in the small but crucial role of Prince Gremin. Lensky, an impetuous, slightly eccentric poet. His friend Onegin, a One of the beauties of Eugene Onegin is the distinct sound of the couple of years older, has been around a bit and seems worldly by Russian language and the emotional coloring that it gives to the comparison. He has a smooth, superficial charm and enjoys dal- music. No matter how talented a foreign singer is, a native speaker liances with women rather than the deep involvement that Lensky has a distinct advantage in imparting its flavor and the subtext. champions. Olga is vivacious and outgoing; Tatyana is sensitive, Nonetheless, this recording on DG, conducted by James Levine delicate, and painfully shy. She is also trusting and incapable of de- and starring Mirella Freni, Thomas Allen, and Neil Shicoff, has a ceit. All of these characters are real and complex people, not the collection of first-rate artists with a special sensitivity for this mate- larger-than-life figures we see in many operas. Tosca, Lucia, Don rial. Temperamentally, each of these singers is ideally suited for his Giovanni, and Hoffmann, for all their fascination, are not people or her role. Maestro Levine lavishes great love and sensitivity in we think of as being like us. But the awkwardness of young love, shaping the orchestral playing, creating the dreaminess and longing with its uncomfortable combination of exciting discoveries and bro- that perfume this score. ken dreams, is something all of us can identify with. So when we Although Freni is an Italian who is almost unrivaled in much of watch a performance of Eugene Onegin we are touched because we the Italian romantic repertory, her long marriage with the Bulgarian can feel the aching that the characters feel. bass Nicolai Ghiaurov has given her a special window into the Tchaikovsky understood that his delicate exploration of love world of Russian opera in which her husband excels. He was instru- would be ruined if the roles of these young people were played by a mental in introducing Freni to congenial music in the Russian reper- matronly, middle-aged soprano and a portly, mature-looking tenor tory, including the roles of Tatyana and Lisa in The Queen of and baritone. At his insistence, the first production was done at the Spades. Freni added this role when she was a grandmother in her • 303 302 • OPERA 101 EUGENE ONEGIN haracters Tchaikovsky saw in many other operas. Read the early fifties. You would never know this to see her or hear her. It hu ficial c ynopsis for Act I, scene 1 (page 32) before starting your CD always been her special skill to embody emotionally complex, sens. s tive yet strong and always lovable young women (Liù in Turandct, player. The sound of the introductory music (disk 1, track 1, page 67) Micaëla in Carmen, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and especially Mimi in La Bohème). Freni's unique talent and skills, as well as tkx may make you think that you somehow have dropped into the mid- care with which she maintained the fresh bloom in her voice at an dle of the opera. Tchaikovsky deftly gives us the sense that the emo- age when most sopranos have lost much of their abilities, make hgt tional climate we are about to discover has been going on for a while one of the most beloved of all opera stars. even if we are only now coming to it. Listen to how frankly and nabashedly emotional this music is. Thomas Allen is an excellent British baritone who is a supera u vocal and physical actor. He understands the unlikability of charac. We are now in the first scene of Act I. This opera has seven "lyric ters such as Onegin and Don Giovanni yet manages to make audi- scenes," and I refer to acts only to make clear when the intermis- ences care about the people he is portraying. It is fair to say that Ned sions occur. Act I has three scenes, Acts II and III each have two. The curtain rises to show Madame Larina and Filipyevna making jam. Shicoff, the tenor who plays Lensky, is a specialist in high-strung characters such as Don José in Carmen, Hoffmann, and the title rol: Inside the house, Olga and Tatyana sing of love and sorrow, and in Don Carlo—important and difficult roles that gain dimensioi soon the older women remark that they too knew those feelings when sung by artists with considerable emotional underpinnings once. Filipyevna reminds Larina that while her husband was court- The orchestra, chorus, and all of the artists carefully imbue this ing her she was dreaming of another man who was unattainable. music and story with emotional restraint, so that the rare bursts of This quartet concludes to the melancholy strains of a cello. passion that come forth take on even more meaning. Although you have been listening to this recording for little more Let us begin. As always, acquaint yourself with the names and than five minutes, it must already be clear to you that this opera relationships of the characters (page 2 of the booklet) and then read probably sounds like nothing you have yet heard. The slight nasality the excellent essay by John Warrack (pages 23-30). This will give of Russian is different from the nasality of French. There is some- you a lot of valuable background on the opera, some of which I have thing inescapably sentimental about the sound of this language that already discussed. The photograph on page 24 shows Tchaikovsky lends itself to the flavor of this opera. Notice, too, the sensitivity and and Antonina Milyukova, the woman to whom he was briefly mar- restraint in the orchestral writing. Tchaikovsky uses the orchestra to ried and who provided many of the elements of the character of create a range of emotional colors. There are very few bright colors Tatyana. in Tchaikovsky's palette, and most of those he saves for dance On page 23 there is a quotation from a letter Tchaikovsky music. Instead, we have muted hues that are no less dramatic for the absence of splashiness and ostentation. You will need to adjust your wrote to his brother during the composition of Eugene Onegin in which he exalts the virtues of this story compared to those of ears to all of these new sounds if you are to feel the deep emotions in other operas then popular. The "Pharaohs" and "Ethiopian prin- these "lyric scenes." The focus expands with the arrival of peasants coming in from cesses" refer to characters in Verdi's Aida. The "poisoned cups" the harvest (track 3, page 77). It is typical in Russian operas to have appeared in many operas, including Verdi's Ernani. The reference to "tales about automata," is not a reference to Olympia and prominent choral passages representing the Russian masses, the backbone of old Russian tradition. Tchaikovsky and many Russian other characters in Les Contes d'Ho ffmann (which did not have composers introduced Russian folk melodies in their music (his its premiere until 1881, two years after the premiere of Eugene Onegin). Rather, "automata" describes the predictable and super- "1812" Overture is full of them), and there are passages in this 304 • OPERA 101 EUGENE ONEGIN • 305 chorus celebrating the harvest that are as Russian as vodka and here in the country, so far from everything"). The innocent, trusting black bread. This is also the first dance sequence, and the peasants Tatyana responds much more seriously ("I have my books, I have do traditional folk dances in a circle. It is important to note the style my dreams; dreams have been my companions since my earliest of dance in each scene, because the dance is indicative of the temper. days"). Lensky and Olga return, and he tells her in no uncertain ament of the moment. terms how deep his love is for her. We see an interesting parallel in Note the change in sound after the joyous dance. We hear only this scene. Onegin's observation was correct: the deeply sentimental the melancholy voice of Tatyana (track 4, page 83), which provide s Lensky might be more suitable for Tatyana, while the more superfi- startling contrast to the previous chorus. Note too that Mirella Onegin would probably be a better match for the carefree Olga. Freni sounds very much like a young girl, a remarkable achievemen cial t Filipyevna sees that Tatyana is smitten with Onegin. Notice the for an artist in her early fifties. What we have in Freni is that rare slow, quiet ending and compare it with the endings of most opera and happy circumstance of a singer who looks and sounds the part scenes you know. but also brings the wisdom of years that can be infused into the Read the synopsis for scene 2 (page 32) before continuing. We performance. are now in Tatyana's bedroom. Just as the orchestral introduction We discover that Olga is considerably more upbeat than her sis- to the opera made us think that we were entering a situation that ter, who is swept up with the stories of love and suffering she is was already in progress, here the first sounds of the strings in the reading in her books. Her mother remarks (page 87), "It's only fic- orchestra signal an upsweep in emotion. We sense that Filipyevna tion. As the years went by, I came to see that there are no heroes in and Tatyana have already been talking when we arrive (track 9, real life." This is a very telling line, straight from the ironic pen of page 105). Filipyevna tells Tatyana the story of her arranged mar- Pushkin, that stands in stark contrast to the views of the dreamy riage—there was no question about falling in love. Tatyana, of Tatyana. Listen to the sudden orchestral outburst as Larina, Olga, course, is lost in her own thoughts about Onegin. Tatyana, and Filipyevna see Lensky and Onegin coming up to the As her nanny leaves, Tatyana sits down to write a letter to One- walk. The bustle in the orchestra (track 5, 2:45) is tied not only to gin describing all of her thoughts and feelings about this man of her the actions onstage but to the stream of thoughts running through dreams, a man she scarcely knows. The famous letter scene (track the minds of each of these women. 10, page 115) shares something with other scenes you have learned: Track 6: Lensky and Onegin arrive. Onegin observes (page 95) Lucia's mad scene, Tosca's "Vissi d'arte," Donna Elvira's "Mi that while Olga is more bubbly, surely Lensky the poet should have tradì"; each is a reflection of the inner feelings of the character. been attracted to the sorrowful Tatyana. She, on the other hand, What is different, though, is that while the other women are looking experiences love at first sight. This may seem like a theatrical con- back with sadness, Tatyana is afire with hope and passion about the vention that doesn't occur in real life, but as some of us know first- future. The fourteen-minute letter scene is a renowned showpiece hand, it can happen, although it is often accompanied by a certain for a singer. There are few circumstances in which audience mem- degree of blindness and denial. We see what we want to love. We do bers can devote so much time to one character and one singer. Al- not necessarily perceive the other's flaws. though not much happens in the scene, this dreamy young girl's Track 7 (page 99) contains several turning points in the opera. recitation of her feelings of first love overflows with emotion. A Lensky, in a beautiful arioso, declares his love for Olga. As his heart great artist, such as Freni, can captivate an audience here and pro- swells, she deflates it with teasing. The scene shifts back and forth duce an important result: although the opera is called Eugene One- between Lensky and Olga in one part of the garden and Onegin and gin, the most important character, the one we care about most, is Tatyana in the other. Onegin makes the blasé, general conversation Tatyana. of a bored city sophisticate ("It must be dreadfully boring to live Read the words to the letter scene carefully as you listen to the 306 • OPERA 1 0 1 EUGENE ONEGIN • 307 music. This sudden burst of emotions reveals a side to this shy girl several months since Onegin's rejection of Tatyana. We are inside that she has not shown to others. Notice that in the course of this the Larina house at a ball in honor of Tatyana's name day. Gradu- aria there are eight distinct changes in mood: these are indicated in ally (at 2:10) the music changes from a reminder of the letter to the the text and you can hear them in the music. This, in fact, is a won. buoyant dance music (a waltz) of the ball. Remember that Tchai- derful object lesson in how a composer can read a text and then kovsky was one of the greatest composers of dance music, if not the create music that evokes the feelings expressed in the words. The greatest of all. Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nut- first passage, on page 115, starts with "Let me perish" and con- cracker are three masterpieces. That is why the dance music in Eu- cludes with "Wherever I look, I see him!" The orchestra then takes gene Onegin is more thrilling than that of most other operas. Also, over and changes our mood before Tatyana writes and then cries, note how the waltz gives a different flavor to this scene than the "No, that's all wrong!" as she destroys this draft of her letter (page peasant dances did to the first scene of the opera. In the sixth scene 117). Continue reading and listening and you will find the other of the opera, in St. Petersburg, the more sophisticated polonaise will transitions (or beats, to use a term you know). evoke different feelings than did the other dance music of this opera. Tatyana has stayed up till dawn writing her feverish declaration This is another effective way that Tchaikovsky gives emotional of love for Onegin. You can hear this realization that the morning color and weight to different scenes in the opera. light has arrived (track 11, page 123) in the music. Tatyana entrusts During this waltz, Onegin and Tatyana dance. He is quite bored her letter to Filipyevna, whose grandson will take it to Onegin. and contemptuous of these provincial people. Notice (page 141) Now read the synopsis of scene 3 (page 33). This scene (track 12, how Tchaikovsky has created two groups of gossips to comment on page 129) takes place in another part of Madame Larina's garden. the young couple. Group A thinks they make a lovely couple. Group Servant girls sing about flirting with boys. The undercurrent of this B thinks Onegin is a cad who has been cruel to Tatyana. Then (page innocent, rustic peasant folk song about boys and girls provides a 143), both groups agree that Onegin is a character not to be trusted touching contrast to the events that will transpire with Onegin and ("He won't kiss ladies' hands ... he drinks only red wine—by the Tatyana. He tells her that he is not interested in marriage and can tumblerful!"). This annoys Onegin, who is now mad at his friend only offer her a brother's love. He speaks of being unable to recap- Lensky for insisting that he come along to the ball. To get back at ture the soul of innocence, that he has become a free-roaming per- Lensky, Onegin decides to flirt with Olga. son who could not abide the confinement marriage would impose. Track 2: Olga and Lensky quarrel. He is insanely jealous of One- Rather than having Tatyana respond to his words, Tchaikovsky gin, who has now danced many dances with Olga. She tells him he reintroduces the singing servant girls. Read the concluding direc- has nothing to be jealous of and ridicules him. This encounter is tions to the scene: "The voices of the servant girls die away. Onegin interrupted by Triquet (track 2, 3:40), a Frenchman who is a tutor offers Tatyana his arm; after giving him a long, imploring look, she for Tatyana. In the Russia of that time, knowledge of French lan- rises mechanically, accepts his arm and they leave slowly." Passion guage and culture was a symbol of proper education and status. and feeling have now been put back under lock and key. These two Russian audiences briefly shared this sense of breeding and culture characters resume the role playing that is expected of them. by enjoying Triquet's charming French song in the middle of a Rus- Now read the synopsis (page 33) for the first scene of Act II, the sian opera. Triquet's song is in honor of Tatyana, for whom this fourth scene of the opera. The music begins on the second CD. party was organized. This little interruption may remind you of Track 1: The first notes we hear, starting with a flute and then with Frantz's song in the Antonia act of Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Com- the addition of strings, bring to mind the letter scene, although the pare them in terms of sound and style and their dramatic effect on flavor of the music is different, more anguished than ecstatic. It is their respective scenes. 308 • OPERA 101 EUGENE ONEGIN • 309

Track 3, page 154: Dancing resumes. This time it is a mazurka. In synopsis of Act III, scene 1 (the sixth "lyric scene") on page 34 between, the jealous Lensky exchanges taunts with Onegin. Soon before listening to the music. the quarrel brings the dancing to a halt. Larina begs them not to Track 7, page 183: From the first notes the orchestra plays, we argue in the house. can tell that we have moved from the provinces to St. Petersburg, Track 4, page 163: The argument has gone too far. Lensky de- then the capital of Russia and its great artistic, economic, and social cides his friendship with Onegin is over. Onegin expresses a rare center. The music of the polonaise tells us this is a grand occasion in regret for his actions. Lensky will not hear this. He feels that both the mansion of a nobleman. At the end of the dance, we see Onegin Onegin and Olga have hurt him. As custom dictates in this time and standing alone. His first line (track 8) is revealing: "I am bored here place, Lensky challenges his former friend to a duel. The choral too." Nothing in his life has yet aroused his passion, which is part of music toward the end of this scene may sound curiously festive, but this character's tragedy. In his monologue, Onegin explains how a by the time the orchestra chimes in to conclude the scene, there is life of restless wandering has not given him anything meaningful. little doubt that the seeds of tragedy have been sown. He has no roots, no attachments, no obligations. Now read the synopsis for Act II, scene 2 (page 33). Track 5, page Suddenly, he is interrupted by another dance. As it ends, Prince 173: The scene opens at dawn on the banks of a stream near an old Gremin enters with an elegant woman of regal bearing and tasteful mill. This being Russia in January, it is likely that there is a lot of dress. Guests bow to them. Onegin soon realizes that it is none other snow. The music for this scene begins with the sound of mournful than Tatyana. She recognizes him and briefly loses her composure. cellos. Grave notes are then introduced from other parts of the or- Onegin asks Gremin who the woman is. "My wife," the prince chestra. We find Lensky and his second, Zaretsky. The opening replies. The prince is substantially older than Onegin and Tatyana. notes of the scene return as Lensky reflects on his short life. This aria In a famous aria (track 9, page 191) Gremin explains how his life has much of the flavor, if not the sound, of "E lucevan le stelle," has changed since marrying Tatyana. After a life in the high society Cavaradossi's aria in Tosca at dawn on the day he knows he will of St. Petersburg, Gremin tired of the pretense and vacuity of social die. relations. Suddenly this passionate, emotional, and genuine person Track 6, page 177: Onegin and his second, Guillot, arrive. As came into his life, and he has experienced true love. Lensky and Onegin turn their backs and take their paces, each man Track 10, page 193: Gremin presents Onegin to Tatyana, who remarks that he does not think their quarrel merits a duel. But duty, acknowledges that they have already met. After polite conversation, honor, and convention require them to go through with it. In mo- Tatyana says she is tired and departs with her husband. Onegin, for ments, these two men who loved one another as friends will turn the first time, explodes with feelings of love, jealousy, dreaminess, and shoot. And Lensky will die. and passion. Could this be the same girl he rejected years before? By this point in the opera, social convention (or, in the case of How could he have been so presumptuous, so foolish? Notice the Onegin and Tatyana, the lack thereof) has prevented all of the passion and pathos that have heretofore been absent from his music. young characters from experiencing the gratification and joy that As he sings his last words, "Wherever I look, I see her" (echoing love can bring. The older characters, Larina and Filipyevna, seem Tatyana's sentiments in the first act), dance music swirls up and world-weary on the subject. They do not believe in romantic love carries him away. and choose instead to pursue their maternal instincts, loving and We have reached Act III, scene 2, the final scene in the opera. caring for Tatyana and Olga. Read the synopsis on page 34 before listening to track 11 (page The final act shifts to St. Petersburg. It is several years since One- 197). The feelings of love for Onegin have returned to Tatyana. The gin has killed Lensky. He is now twenty-six years old. Read the orchestra tells us of the storm in her soul, which continues as One- 310 • OPERA 101 EUGENE ONEGIN • 311 gin appears and rushes to her feet. Onegin's cold heart has finally Mimì, and Rodolfo is one of Pavarotti's signature roles. For com- been warmed with love. He declares his love for Tatyana and she parison, there is a treasurable recording on Angel/EMI from the confesses that she still loves him. He insists that his love has nothing 1950s conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham and starring Victoria de to do with her new station in life but with his recognition of feelings Angeles and Jussi Björling. I am afraid that after hearing these los that he had always suppressed. Nonetheless, duty and convention two performances, though, you will find that few you will hear in an step in. Tatyana says she must be faithful to her husband, although opera house will ever measure up. she does not experience the same sort of love for the prince that she After the intimacy and emotionalism of Eugene Onegin, we will does for Onegin. Tatyana rushes out. After a brief, stunned ma go to the opposite end of the spectrum and learn about grand opera, ment, Onegin, all alone, leaves in despair. The orchestra follows his the style that comes to mind when most people think of opera. We footsteps and tells us of the ache in Onegin's heart. will study Verdi's Don Carlo, one of the most towering works in the Again, longing will replace love. We can only envision the sad- repertory. ness and emptiness ahead for Tatyana and Eugene Onegin and won- der at what might have been.

Eugene Onegin is now part of the standard repertory for most major opera companies, but the fact that it is in Russian means that it is not staged as often as operas in Italian, German, or French. Therefore, it may be some time before you get to see a performance. It is much more likely that Puccini's La Bohème will be playing somewhere near you. Many people who do not know much about opera think La Bohème is a great first opera. I do not agree. There is actually a lot of recitative and repartee that slows down the action. The arias are beautiful, but one has to wait for them. Therefore, I recommend that you consider Rigoletto, La Traviata, Tosca, or Ca- valleria Rusticana/Pagliacci for your first night at the opera. La Bohème is more about young lovers than about love. The basic, rather predictable story is: boy meets girl, they fall in love, they quarrel, girl leaves boy, girl gets sick, they make up, girl dies. What this opera does have in common with Eugene Onegin is that both benefit from the fresh faces and voices of young singers, although those in La Bohème do not need the sophistication of those in Tchaikovsky's opera. Because this opera is so frequently presented, many productions of La Bohème are sloppy and underrehearsed, so that the delicate beauty of Puccini's opera is often obliterated. When you study La Bohème, look for the recording on London/ Decca conducted by Herbert von Karajan and starring Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti. Freni, as I suggested earlier, is the perfect