Kristen Yurovchak
ART 211
Professor Roundtree
26 September 2017
Eugene Onegin
In
1832, Alexander Pushkin published a novel titled Eugene Onegin. Today the novel is considered a Russian classic and
a breakaway from the traditional Russian novels that were published at the time
that Onegin was written. The plot of
the novel consists of a young girl from the countryside of Russia named
Tatyana. She falls in love with a young man, Eugene Onegin, who is a part of
high society. She confesses her love to him only to have him reject her and
tell her that she needs to control her feelings. He kills his friend Lensky,
Tatyana’s sister’s fiancé, and leaves the country. Years later he returns to
find Tatyana married to a man part of high society and realizes he loves her.
Tatyana rejects him however due to her pride and virtue.
The
novel, when it was released, was unusual for its time because many people felt it
lacked an ending. During the time, stories had the heroine and the hero end up
together but in Eugene Onegin, it is
not the case. People also realized that there was nothing special about the
protagonist and that even though he was the hero of the story, he was
unremarkable and ultimately “an ordinary person” (Belinsky). This allowed for
people reading the novel to feel a realistic connection with the events of the
story.
In
1824 when the work was still in progress, Pushkin received criticism that his
work on Onegin did not express enough
romanticism. However, Pushkin declared it was not the point of his work to
express romantic ideas but rather how foolish people can be through their
actions. Ironically Tchaikovsky, who wrote the operatic version of Eugene Onegin, turned it into “a lush,
dreamily sentimental romanticism” (Schimdgall).
Tchaikovsky revealed
that he handled Pushkin’s characters as people and not as puppets. He wanted to
express the story as three-dimensional characters rather than the ones that
exist in the poem. However, the opera focuses heavily on Tatyana instead of
Eugene. For this reason, Schimdgall is critical of Tchaikovsky’s score because
it shows his “disinclination to develop the side of Onegin’s character…” (Schimdgall).
Despite how different the novel and
opera are it is considered a successful opera.
The first reason the
opera was successful was because Tchaikovsky was true to his aesthetic. He gave
life to ‘puppets’ that were created by Pushkin and he made the characters more
engaging for audiences. It also succeeds because of its heavily influenced
Russian score which allowed Tchaikovsky to write with his heart and not make
the opera feel forced or manufactured. The opera is very hard to stage properly
due to the emotional aspect put into it. Tchaikovsky wants the audiences to
feel genuinely, rather than having the stage exude strong emotions. Many theatre
companies insist on performing Onegin on
a large stage, even though the show was written for intimate theatres.
The reception to Onegin was mixed at first. Many viewers
did not like how Pushkin’s literature was manipulated to fit into the opera’s
version of the story. The main protagonist’s vocal range also goes against tradition.
Normally 19th century operas had tenors be the heroes of the story
but instead Tchakovsky wrote the part for a baritone (Spreng). The part of
Eugene is also not an orthodox part of a hero nor is he really sympathetic. The
lack of death in the opera also went against the traditional opera for the
time. Many opera’s had more than one character die before the end but Eugene Onegin only has one. Tchaikovsky
also worried about audience’s reception to the opera because of the lack of
scene changes.
In
the version of the opera that I watched there are only seven scene changes in
which we do not see the transition. Every time the setting changes in the
opera, the curtains close and reopen to completely new scenery. The scenery,
although it was beautiful was very simplistic. The first scene showed the
outside of the Tatyana’s home and it stayed that way the entire time until the
curtain closed. The next time the curtain reopens Tatyana is in her room and
once again the audience feels like they are in an enclosed area. The lighting
used in this scene makes the viewer’s feel as if it is nighttime as well as the
lighting in the back that is supposed to be the moon.
The
next scene is the place where Eugene and Tatyana meet and where he rejects her
love. The scenery is simplistic with just greenery as the background and a
single bench. This is done so we can focus on the plot and not what is going on
in the background. After that is the party at Tatyana’s house and the scene
changes a little bit. The viewer now feels like they are in a larger space even
though it is obvious it isn’t an incredibly wealthy space. Where Lensky and
Onegin duel is simplistic as well but the use of lighting during Lensky’s song,
before his death, gives off a feeling of foreboding.
The
scene where Tatyana and Eugene meet again is in a lavish ballroom and is
significantly better than the ballroom we see previously. It gives off a large
feeling and lets the audience know that Tatyana has moved up in social class.
Finally the last scene where Eugene confesses his love for Tatyana appears to
be in a closed in study room and the feeling is once again intimate. The
lighting gets darker throughout the scene until Tatyana rejects Eugene which
leaves a feeling of sadness and anguish.
If
I were to make this opera into a video game, I would make this into a role
playing game where the gamer would have the ability to choose different
outcomes. Much of the opera is the characters lamenting about “what if”. The
beginning shows the mother lamenting about her forced marriage and what life
would have been like without it. Tatyana laments if she should confess her love
to Eugene and struggles with the decision for an entire night. Lensky laments
about what will happen in the duel and Onegin laments about confessing his
feelings for Tatyana at the end. The gamer would be able to choose the path the
characters take and experience the different outcomes each time they play much
like how a role playing game has different endings.
Works Cited
Hoisington, Sona Stephan. Russian Views
of Pushkins "Eugene Onegin". Indiana University Press, 1989.
Schmidgall, Gary. Literature as Opera.
Oxford University Press, 1980.
Spreng, Sebastian. "Eugene Onegin:
More than an Opera, an Emotional Symphony." Knight Foundation.
Kinght Foundation, 24 Jan. 2017. Web.
