“Eugene Onegin” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Notes on the Libretto

Eugene Onegin presents an unusual textual problem: much of its libretto is not merely based upon Pushkin, but preserves his verse directly. Tchaikovsky and Konstantin Shilovsky fashioned the operatic text from the novel in verse, retaining such celebrated passages as Tatyana’s letter and Onegin’s reply while freely arranging, abbreviating, and supplementing the original for the stage. Tchaikovsky himself called the work “lyrical scenes,” an apt description of a drama built less upon theatrical incident than upon intimate encounters and changes of feeling.

In preparing the Russian–English text, particular care was therefore given to keeping the English close to the movement and structure of the Russian rather than turning Pushkin’s concise lines into explanatory prose. Even the apparently simple «Привычка свыше нам дана, / Замена счастию она» resists literal treatment: the present English, “Habit is sent us from above / in place of happiness,” preserves both the economy and slightly proverbial character of the original.

The opera’s ending also has its own textual history. Tchaikovsky considerably dramatized Pushkin’s final meeting between Tatyana and Onegin; the earliest version even brought Gremin onstage at the close. Contemporary objections were strong, and the stage conception subsequently changed. This is a useful reminder that the familiar operatic Onegin is neither a simple transcription of Pushkin nor merely an adaptation, but a closely related dramatic text with a history of its own.