Based on Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel of the same name, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is given an elegiac telling in this production by Kasper Holten.

It follows Tatyana as she’s introduced to the dashing, unconventional Onegin. She believes he’s the hero of her dreams; he coldly rejects her. Bored, he flirts with her sister Olga, outraging Lensky, Olga’s fiancé and Onegin’s only friend.

Tchaikovsky’s best-loved opera, Eugene Onegin provided the composer with an opportunity to present everyday and authentic experiences on the stage, in contrast to the epic narratives that characterised much of the European opera of the time.

After initial consternation that Tchaikovsky should set this pinnacle of Russian literature to music, Eugene Onegin quickly became a firm favourite with Russian audiences. Within a decade of its 1879 premiere, it had been performed more than 100 times in St Petersburg.

The production is sung in Russian with English surtitles.

Learn more about London operas within the West End.