Verbier Festival 2017: Eugene Onegin

The third and final operatic event of the 2017 festival was Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Stanislav Kochanovsky leads the young musicians and singers of the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra and the Verbier Festival Academy in Timothy Carroll’s semi-staged version of this landmark opera. Eugene Onegin - subtitled “Lyric Scenes” by Tchaikovsky - was inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s novel of the same name. It was the singer Elizavieta Lavrovskaya who originally suggested adapting Pushkin’s novel into an opera. While initially skeptical, Tchaikovsky became heavily invested in the opera’s composition, entirely rewriting the libretto himself in a single evening. The story centers around Eugene Onegin, a young dandy of Saint Petersburg, who rejects the love of a young aristocrat and becomes involved in a deadly combat with his best friend out of jealousy. Tragedy and depression hover like shadows over this masterpiece of lyric opera.