In May 1877, the opera singer Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya advised Tchaikovsky to create an opera based on the plot of Pushkin's novel in verse Eugene Onegin. At first this idea seemed wild to the composer, according to his memoirs. However, soon enough, he was growing excited about the suggestion and created the scenario in one night before starting the composition of the music. Tchaikovsky admired Pushkin.
He wrote the libretto in collaboration with Konstantin Shilovsky (1849-1893). Tchaikovsky used original verses from Pushkin’s novel – the “encyclopedia of Russian life” – as Vissarion Belinsky called it, and chose scenes that involved the emotional world and fortunes of his heroes, having modestly titled the opera “lyrical scenes”. Therefore, he decided to entrust the first performance to the youth - the students of the Moscow Conservatory. On 17 (29) March 1879, the premiere of Eugene Onegin took place. Soon, the opera was staged at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (1881) and the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg (1884), it was a great success and became one of the most popular works.
Today, the most famous opera houses and singers include this opera in their repertoires. The lead roles were brilliantly performed by opera stars such as Renata Tebaldi, Galina Vishnevskaya, Roza Jamanova and Anna Netrebko (Tatyana); Pavel Lisitsian, Muslim Magomayev, Yermek Serkebayev and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Onegin); Vladimir Atlantov, Ivan Kozlovsky, Sergei Lemeshev, Zurab Sotkilava, Alibek Dnishev (Lensky) and others.
