The Sunday Musical Offering - Tchaikovsky "Letter Scene"

I am preparing some lectures about the life and music of Tchaikovsky for later in the spring and have been listening to his opera Eugene Onegin. The opera came to life in May of 1877, when the opera singer Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya spoke to Tchaikovsky about creating an opera based on the plot of Pushkin's verse novel Eugene Onegin. At first this idea seemed wild to the composer, according to his memoirs. Tchaikovsky felt that the novel wasn't properly strong in plot which was rather banal - a wordly man rejects a young country girl, she successfully grows into a worldly woman, he tries to seduce her but it is too late. The strength of the novel resided in its character development and social commentary, as well as in the beauty of its literary delivery. Soon enough however and after a sleepless night, Tchaikovsky came to embrace the idea. He was soon growing excited about the suggestion and created the scenarios in one night before starting the composition of the music.

Tchaikovsky, with the assistance of Konstantin Shilovsky, used original verses from Pushkin's novel and chose scenes that involved the emotional world and fortunes of his heroes, calling the opera "lyrical scenes." The opera is episodic; there is no continuous story, just selected highlights of Onegin's life. Since the original story was so well known, Tchaikovsky knew his audience could easily fill in any details that he omitted. The composer finished the opera by January 1878.

Here is a portion of the famous "Letter Scene" sung by Renee Fleming.

Love One Another - Brian