EUGENE ONEGIN

Opera by Pyotr Tchaikovsky 

National Opera and Ballet of Belarus

Music director: Alexander Anisimov
Conductor: Andrey Galanov
Dramatic and artistic director: Valery Shishov
Revival director: Alexander Prokhorenko
Set designer: Dmitry Mokhov
Chorus master and director: Nina Lomanovich
Choreographer: Aleksandra Tikhomirova

In a letter to a friend, Tchaikovsky wrote about his famous opera: “As for the music, I should like to point out to you that if there was ever any music written with genuine enthusiasm, with love for the plot and characters it is inspired by, then that is the music to Onegin. I was melting and quivering with indescribable delight when I wrote it. And if even just the slightest portion of what I felt when composing this opera finds a response in the listeners, then I will be very satisfied and I want for no more.” 

Modest provincial girl Tatyana offers true love to the “suffering egoist” (the phrase used by the famous 19th century Russian literary critic Vissarion Belinsky to describe Onegin), but he fails to recognise it until it is already too late – as always happens. The significance of Pushkin’s most important work cannot be overestimated in Russian culture. In fact, it is as invaluable as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for the English people, Goethe’s Faust for Germans or Dante’s Divine Comedy for Italians. You can find everything here: emotion, social criticism, even moral philosophy. 

Belarus has often been overlooked – yet undeservedly. There is a truly high-level opera and ballet theatre in Minsk carrying on the best aspects of the Russian tradition. The productions of the theatre are sophisticated, dignified and genuinely beautiful. His career as a conductor and director has taken Alexander Anisimov to Ireland and Korea, to Berlin and Houston, to Oslo and Amsterdam. He has also received the Golden Mask National Theatre Award in Russia. The Minsk production of Eugene Onegin is artistically in good hands. 

Estimated run time 3 hours 45 minutes (two intermissions)