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Evgenii Onegin: The Art of Adaptation, Novel to Opera

Author(s): NICHOLAS G. ŽEKULIN


Source: Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes, Vol. 29, No. 2/3 (June-
September 1987), pp. 279-291
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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NICHOLAS G. ZEKULIN

Evgenii Onegin: The Art of Adapta


Novel to Opera
The success of Chaikovskii's opera Evgenii Onegin should not ob
fact that it required considerable audacity - an audacity that Ch
freely admitted1 - to choose Pushkin's novel in verse as the source
perhaps inevitable that the opera, while enjoying a certain popular
from the beginning, was also the object of considerable criticism d
at the libretto, not infrequently from persons who were otherwis
ably disposed to the composer.2
Many of the problems involved were inherent in the forgi
libretto from a non-dramatic work, yet the unique role of Evgeni
both in the Pushkin canon and in the subsequent evolution o
literature, as well as the fact that its protagonists and plot were u
known to a Russian audience, inevitably presented additional p
for a librettist. These problems were exacerbated by the fact
novel's most distinctive literary feature (its narrator, the ironic voi
not - and is - Pushkin himself) never appears in the opera. In choo
to create what would have amounted to a new dramatis persona, Ch
skii inevitably simplified the novel and had to forgo the incredibl
of relevant and irrelevant, reverent and irreverent topics intro
Pushkin's narrator. As a result, the opera has often been con
naïve by comparison with Pushkin's original.
Such criticism ignores the conventions of the art form. Only a l
could not accept the caveat of one of the opera's earliest apolo
music critic, Herman Laroche, who remarked that: "[An opera
cannot enter into psychological subtleties that can only be explain
the aid of copious, logically developed speeches in verse or prose. [

1. See, e.g., his letter to S. I. Taneev of 24.I./5.II.1878 in P. I. Cha


Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: Literaturnye proizvedeniia iperepiska, Vol. 7
1962), p. 69 (hereafter PSLP).
2. Most of the initial critical comment concentrated on changes to
text while virtually ignoring the music. For an account of contemporary
see A. Gozenpud, Russkii opernyi teatr XIX veka (1873-1889) (Lening
p. 165.

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280 I Canadian Slavonic Papers June-September 1987

that is operatic must be simpler, cruder than everything that is dramatic."3


Furthermore, Chaikovskii was exploring alternative possibilities. He was
deliberately avoiding the clichés oí grand opéra in favour of "an intimate
but powerful drama, based on the clash of situations that I have experienced
or seen and which can affect me to the quick,"4 that is the genre of the
"lyrico-psychological opera" of which Evgenii Onegin is rightly considered
a masterpiece. Finally, Chaikovskii's Evgenii Onegin is by no means as
psychologically primitive as some of its detractors have intimated, for
Chaikovskii not only had firm opinions about his protagonists, but also
used his medium in such a way as to make those opinions known to his
audience.
The purpose of this article is to examine the last scene (Scene 7) of the
opera, which is the focal point of what Aleksandra Shol'p calls "the com-
poser's intense and distinctive dialogue with the poet, which was nothing
less than a dialogue between two epochs,"5 with the intention of identifying
some of its major distinctive features. Perhaps more clearly than any other,
this last scene demonstrates that Chaikovkii's opera is a thoroughly
thought-out work in its own distinct way. The author's musical narrative
voice is the mark of this profound artistic perception.

The idea of writing an opera based on Pushkin's Evgenii Onegin came


in the form of an almost off-hand suggestion made to him by the singer
Elizaveta Lavrovskaia. Chaikovskii wrote a scenario that same evening,
25 May 1877 (OS), in an inn, and two days later went to visit his friend
Konstantin Shilovskii in order to consult with him about the libretto.
Between them they produced a libretto which utilizes Pushkin's infrequent
direct speech in a number of instances, is elsewhere based to a considerable
extent on Pushkin's original verses, and also includes entirely new text, as
was inevitable and entirely to be expected in the dramatic adaptation of
a largely narrative work.6 Shilovskii's exact contribution - on one occasion

3. G. A. Larosh, "P. I. Chaikovskii kak dramaticheskii kompozitor" (1894)


in his Izbrannye stat'i, Vol. 2 (Leningrad, 1975), pp. 208-209.
4. Letter to Taneev of 2/14.II.1878, PSLP, Vol. 7, p. 22.
5. A. E. Shol'p, "O zakliuchiternoi kartine 'Evgenna Onegma Chaikov-
skogo" in her book 'Evgenii Onegin' Chaikovskogo (Leningrad, 1982), p. 82. This is
a revised version of the article "Problema siuzhetnogo varianta v èpiloge 'Evgeniia
Onegina'," Ukrainskoe muzykovedenie [sic] (1964), pp. 228-44.
6. For a summary of these various components, see Vas. Iakovl ev, Pushkin
i muzyka (Moscow and Leningrad, 1949), pp. 102-105.

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Vol. xxix, Nos. 2&3 Evgenii Onegin: Novel to Opera | 281

described by Chaikovskii as "substantial" - remains a subject of conjecture.


He later expressly requested that his name be omitted from the printed
version of the libretto; and in 1885 he declared publicly that, although the
libretto was originally written by him, he did not wish to claim it as his
work, as a result of the changes made in it by Chaikovskii.7
The music, for which the initial inspiration was Tat'iana's Letter
Scene,8 was also composed rapidly. Despite the trauma that resulted from
Chaikovskii's mercifully brief marriage (with its initial echoes of the
Tat'iana/Onegin relationship), by the middle of July he had already
composed nearly two thirds of the new opera; by 1 February 1878 the
entire work was complete and fully scored.9
From the very first Chaikovskii saw his work as fundamentally
different in form from most contemporary opera, as represented by Wagner
at one extreme and Verdi at the other.10 He avoided the term "opera" and
insisted on describing his Evgenii Onegin as "Lyrical Scenes."11 This choice
of genre designation itself points to a narrower interest on the part of
Chaikovskii than Pushkin's panoramic canvas.12

7. See P. I. Chaikovskii, Polnoe sobrante sochinenii, Vol. 4 ("Opernoe tvor-


chestvo: Evgenii Onegin"), I. Shiskhov (Ed.), (Moscow and Leningrad, 1948),
p. xiv (hereafter PS and, where appropriate - reference by musical number and
letter section), and L. E. Krasinskaia, Opernaia melodika P. I. Chaikovskogo
(Leningrad, 1986), pp. 70-71.
8. Chaikovskii had for some time considered setting this as a separate work.
See David Brown, Tchaikovsky: A Biographical and Critical Study, Vol. 2 ("The
Crisis Years" [1874-1878]) (London, 1982), p. 143.
9. See letter to A. I. Chaikovskii (part dated 1/13.1. 1878), FSLF, Vol. /,p.82.
The MS itself bears the date 25.I/3.II.1878, PS, p. 534.
10. See P. I. Chaikovskii, MuzykaVno-kriticheskie stat'i, 4th ed (Leningrad,
1986), pp. 283, 284-85, and his letter to Taneev of 2/14.1. 1878, PSLP, Vol. 7, pp. 21-
22. For Chaikovskii's appreciative interest in contemporary French lyric opera, see
Gozenpud, Russkii opernyi teatr, p. 156.
11. See, e.g., his letter to Taneev of 24.I/5.II.1878, PSLP, Vol. 7, p. 69 and
to P. I. Jurgenson of 2. VIII. 1878, PSLP, Vol. 7, p. 353.
12. It would not be a misrepresentation to suggest that the subject of Chaikov-
skii's Evgenii Onegin can be reduced to a single one - ironically perhaps the most
common of all operatic motivations- namely love. (See, e.g., Shol'p, "O zakliuchi-
tel'noi kartine 'Evgeniia Onegina'," p. 80.) In fact it would be more precise to
consider the theme not so much as love, as the unfulfilled love of all the protagonists,
except, in a strange way, Prince Gremin. Against this background, Gremin's aria,

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282 I Revue Canadienne des Slavistes Juin-Septembre 1987

However narrow this focus, there is no doubt that his opera contained
the essence of what Chaikovskii found in Pushkin's Evgenii Onegin. He
described his artistic impulse as the desire "to set to music everything in
'Onegin' that demands music," and the composition itself was in every
respect a labour of love: "[. . .] if ever music was written with genuine
enthusiasm, with love for the subject and for its characters, then it is the
music for 'Onegin'."13 By his own admission, the source of Chaikovskii's
"indescribable enthusiasm and pleasure" lay in the Pushkin characters.
"I need," he wrote to Taneev, "people and not puppets."14
Nonetheless, Chaikovskii did make changes to the fabula, particularly
in the last scene of the opera, the climactic tête-à-tête between Onegin and
Tat'iana. As it existed in Chaikovskii's first version, Tat'iana, while trying
to resist Onegin's entreaties, finally falls into his arms where she is dis-
covered by her husband, who, as Tat'iana faints, signals to Onegin that he
must leave. Not surprisingly, this fundamental change evoked considerable
opposition. Even the sympathetic Laroche protested: "Maybe there was
a gain in the operatic effect as a result of such a radical change; but the
character created by the poet and reverently preserved by the musician
(throughout the entire opera until this scene) is shattered and replaced by
another."15 Chaikovskii relented and altered Tat'iana's text and the final
stage direction (while leaving the music intact, however), although not
before he had declared in self-justification: "I may [do it], because it is

sung to Onegin in the second-last scene, "All ages are subject to love, its transports
are salutary," must be seen as ironic, an irony that is underlined by the formal
conventionality of this aria in a work that is to a great extent free of such set forms.
(See B. Asafev, " 'Evgenii Onegin', liricheskie stseny P. I. Chaikovskogo" in his
Izbrannye trudy, Vol. 2 [Moscow, 1954], pp. 89-92, 99.)
13. Letters to Taneev of 2/14.1. and 24.I/5.II.1878, PSLP, Vol. 7, pp. 21 and
69.

14. PSLP, Vol. 7, p. 21. His rejection of contemporary opera was based
precisely on his inability to empathize with "an Egyptian prince, a pharaoh or
some demented Nubian," and his commitment to the vitality of the characters led
him repeatedly to reject the possibility of a professional production with its all-
permeating bureaucratic routineness in favour of an "amateur" performance at
the Moscow Conservatory under the direction of Nikolai Rubinstein. (PSLP, Vol.
7, pp. 22; 35-36; 74; 97; 205; 355.)
15. Larosh, " 'Evgenii Onegin' Chaikovskogo v spektakle konservatorii,"
Izbrannye stat'i, Vol. 2, p. 107.

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Vol. XXIX, Nos. 2 &3 Evgenii Onegin: Novel to Opera | 283

necessary and I am convinced of what I am doing." This statement confirms


that Chaikovskii's changes had been conscious and deliberate.16
More importantly, Chaikovskii's attitude to the three principal
protagonists differed substantially from the views expressed by Pushkin
in the 1830s, even if they were probably typical of those of an educated
Russian of the 1870s. Although Pushkin was always a central force of
Russian culture for Chaikovskii, the composer was inevitably dealing not
so much with Pushkin's Onegin, Tat'iana, and Lenskii, but with the Onegin,
Tat'iana, and Lenskii figures of Russian culture.17 For Chaikovskii, as for
many other Russians, Tat'iana was an ideal with which he was virtually in
love. Consequently, there was no room for Pushkin's occasional light-
hearted barbs. There was even less room for Pushkin's irony in his attitude
towards Lenskii, and it is here that the most substantial difference between
the author and the composer are to be found. For Chaikovskii, Lenskii
was not Pushkin's juvenile poetaster, but the Poet, the epitome of creative
talent and a character with whom he himself, to a certain extent, identified.
Given this apotheosis of Lenskii, it is not surprising that Chaikovskii
consistently found the character of Onegin completely antipathetic with
few if any redeeming features.18
As might be expected, Chaikovskii conveys his own particular
perspective on the characters and their relationships to each other through
the musical material - melodic and rhythmic patterns, harmony, tonality

16. See Shol'p, "O zakliuchitel'noi kartine 'Evgeniia Onegina'," P- 79 and


PS, p. 535.
17. See E. Berliand-Chernaia, Pushkin i Chaikovskii ([Moscow], 1950), p. 51.
Chaikovskii certainly disagreed radically with D. I. Pisarev's rejection of Pushkin,
interestingly on the grounds that Pisarev rejected music, the aesthetic apprecia-
tion of which the critic compared to gastronomic pleasure. (See A. E. Shol'p,
"O Lenskom Chaikovskogo i otsenke ego I. S. Turgenevym," in Shorp, 'Evgenii
Onegin' Chaikovskogo, pp. 34-36.)
18. He is reported as saying that, from his youth, he had been "shaken to the
depths of my soul" by "the 'poeticism' of the image of Tat'iana." (See Iakovlev,
Pushkin i muzyka, p. 98.) For Lenskii, see Shol'p, 'Evgenii Onegin' Chaikovskogo,
pp. 23-42 and 165. For Chaikovskii's own, perhaps most succinct, summary of his
attitudes to the protagonists of this opera, see his letter of 28-30.IX.1883 to Na-
dezhda von Meek, PSLP, Vol. 12, pp. 246-47; See also N. Rukavishnikov, "Pushkin
v biblioteke P. Chaikovskogo," Sovetskaia muzyka, 1937, No. 1, pp. 62-68, where
Chaikovskii's marginal comments in his edition of Pushkin's Evgenii Onegin are
quoted.

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284 I Canadian Slavonic Papers June-September 1987

and even texture; in other words, Chaikovskii's music serves the composer
as his narrative voice.19

II

Nowhere are divergences between Chaikovskii's opera and Pushkin's


novel greater or more fundamental than in Scene 7. Even without considering
the original ending, in which, to quote Laroche, Chaikovskii "has [Tat'ia-
na] in practice subvert her famous 'I am given to another and will be ever
faithful to him' by five minutes of kisses and embraces," there are important
differences.20 The fact that Chaikovskii had felt it permissible to introduce
if not a rejection of Pushkin's categorical affirmation, then at least an
internal contradiction, was, despite the protestations it evoked, a reflec-
tion of contemporary attitudes. Even though as early a critic as Vissarion
Belinskii had expressed some scorn for what he saw as Tat'iana's bowing
to social convention, it was the image of the dutiful Tat'iana that had
initially come to dominate Russian literature, most notably perhaps in
Turgenev's so-called russkie devushki. These, however, were now being
upstaged in the mid- 1870s by Tolstoi's adulterous Anna Karenina. One
does not need to search for as radical a commentator as Pisarev to find
published opinion suggesting, without having any particular sympathy
for Onegin, that Tat'iana's marital fidelity was outmoded and that her
husband should have granted her a divorce.21 Only in 1880, in his famous
Pushkin speech, did Dostoevskii once and for all identify Tat'iana's
commitment to duty as the apotheosis of Russian woman, a mythical ideal
which has scarcely been challenged since.
The text of Scene 7 can be divided into three sections: a short opening
section - which is an invention of the libretto - in which Tat'iana laments
the reappearance of Onegin in her life; a middle section drawn primarily

19. The idea that Chaikovskii used his music as a commentative voice is, of
course, not new. It was first advanced by Herman Laroche, the composer's friend
and one of the work's earliest commentators, in his discussion of the element of
musical parody in the opera. It was subsequently taken up by Boris Asafev in the
early 1940s (Asafev, " 'Evgenii Onegin'," esp. pp. 90-91) and, more recently, by
Aleksandra Shol'p. See Shol'p's article "O muzykaFno-poeticheskoi frazeologii"
(Shol'p, 'Evgenii Onegin' Chaikovskogo, pp. 92-166) which details Laroche's
contribution as well as identifying the origins of Chaikovskii's musical "quota-
tions" and providing her own perspicacious analysis.
20. Larosh, Izbrannye stat'i, Vol. 2, p. 107.
zl. See, e.g., M. V. Avdeev, in nis study jsasne oosncnestvo v geroiaKn i
geroiniakh (Sankt-Peterburg, 1874), pp. 167-68.

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Vol. xxix, Nos. 2 &3 Evgenii Onegin: Novel to Opera | 285

from Onegin's letter and Tat'iana's admonition to Onegin during their


tête-à-tête as found in Pushkin's text, but with some not insignificant
modifications; finally, a lengthier concluding section, also original to the
libretto, in which Onegin first pleads that their love is fated by heaven and
that Tat'iana must leave her husband for him, followed by a duet, in which
Tat'iana reproclaims her duty even as she acknowledges Onegin's desperate
plea, while Onegin himself continues to press his case.
Perhaps the most fundamental change is in the dramatic structure of
this scene.22 Chaikovskii makes this tête-à-tête a dialogue, something that
Pushkin had carefully avoided. In the novel, having pleaded his case in
a letter, Onegin remains silent throughout Tat'iana's entire, ostensibly
dispassionate, reply. Chaikovskii not only has Onegin deliver his lines in
person, but increases the tension by interspersing them into what had been
Tat'iana's soliloquy. In the opera Onegin fights to the very end. Tat'iana's
admission of her continuing love for him thus appears to be more a con-
sequence of Onegin's pleading than the almost incidental statement that is
found in Pushkin. The context is further changed by Onegin's rapturous
exclamations at this revelation. Tat'iana's admission of love is thereby
separated from the key lines in which she declares her determination to
be faithful to her husband. This seems inherently to weaken that determina-
tion and presages the dramatic struggle that is a part even of the revised,
"orthodox," ending. This loss of the unity that is to be found in Pushkin,
and which denotes a carefully considered and irrevocable decision on the
part of Tat'iana, gives the impression of a somewhat ambivalent Tat'iana
who feels constrained to advance more and more arguments to counter
constant pressure in the form of repeated interruptions by the desperate
Onegin.23
Chaikovskii's placing of Pushkin's narrative text directly into the
mouths of his protagonists, which elsewhere did not necessarily produce
major differences in the intent of the text, here, in Scene 7, has more pro-
found consequences. While the decision to dress Tat'iana in elegant morning

22. Despite his claims for the "undramatic" nature of his work, Chaikovskii
admitted that "out of musical and theatrical considerations, [he] had had to
dramatize substantially the scene of Tat'iana's and Onegin's love declarations."
(Letter to K. K. Al'brecht of 3/15. II. 1878, PSLP, Vol. 7, p. 93.)
23. Onegin thus loses the fatalism which is characteristic of him in the novel
and with that perhaps also a certain element of dignity which his silence in Pushkin
seems to impart to him.

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286 I Revue Canadienne des Slavistes Juin-Septembre 1987

toilette may have been prompted primarily by acceptable norms of on-


stage decency, it was precisely in the picture of the princess, sitting in her
boudoir, pale, sans toilette, and quietly weeping, that Pushkin permitted
his readers to see the deep impact of Onegin's reappearance on the out-
wardly calm and self-possessed Tat'iana. This picture prompts the narrator
to note the presence of the "prezhniaia" Tat'iana in the princess. Chai-
kovskii completely subverts this narrative declaration by placing it directly
in the mouth of Onegin in response to Tat'iana's declaration of love.
Some of the apparently minor textual changes introduced into the
libretto also constitute significant psychological changes. Chaikovskii's
Tat'iana, as if to have a greater impact on Onegin, eventually uses the
apostrophe "Evgenii" instead of the more formal "Onegin" used ex-
clusively in Pushkin. This, however, only serves to precipitate events.
Onegin replies with yet another impassioned plea for pity and this finally
evokes Tat'iana's admission of love. From that moment on Chaikovskii's
Onegin, dramatically and consistently, switches to "ty" in addressing
Tat'iana, and she in turn, in her very last words, "Proshchai na-veki,"
also uses the familiar form. In Pushkin's last scene, Onegin does not speak
at all and Tat'iana carefully confines herself to the formal pronoun.24
Even the modification of a single word can have a crucial effect, as
when Chaikovskii replaces Pushkin's simple conjunction "A shchast'e
bylo tak vozmozhno,/ Tak blizko! . . ." with the emotionally charged ex-
clamation, "Akh' shchast'e bylo tak vozmozhno . . ." [emphasis added].
That this was not merely a slip or an oversight is shown by the fact that this
word receives extraordinary musical emphasis (a long held note which is
also at the highest pitch of the musical phrase) and by Chaikovskii's decision
to fashion a short duet out of this phrase - the first time in Scene 7 that the
two protagonists actually sing together. The resulting impression of
intimacy also had no precedent in Pushkin.
Thus the text in Scene 7, even in the "orthodox" final version of the
opera, radically modifies the psychological parameters and introduces
elements of drama and intimacy that are totally alien to the original novel.

24. Tat'iana had, of course, changed briefly to the singular form in the middle
section of her letter to Onegin, but had never dared to use it to his face. Inter-
estingly - since the original version had as Tat'iana's last words "la umiraiu" -
this implied intimacy on Tat'iana's part in the last scene was absent in the "blas-
phemous" first version. (PS, pp. 532-33.)

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Vol. xxix, Nos. 2&3 Evgenii Onegin: Novel to Opera | 287

III

If Chaikovskii seems to depart radically from Pushkin in the text and


dramatic structure of Scene 7, the music provides essential insights into his
changes. In the first place it provides the "missing" narrative voice - often
as ironic as Pushkin's even though the irony is directed elsewhere - and
in the second, it gives as much, if not more, information about the inner
psychological state of the two protagonists as had Pushkin. Whereas
Pushkin's Tat'iana betrays her emotions only in her toilette and even her
admission of love for Onegin is delivered in an almost matter-of-fact way,
Chaikovskii's Tat'iana gradually succumbs to the intensity of the situation
and reveals all the depth of her feelings for Onegin, while the music through-
out serves as a barometer of her emotional state.25
The music of Scene 7 is made up of a number of separate sections, each
of which contains musical material that is designed to impart information
and increase the dramatic content beyond that of the words. The musical
material of the opening at once supplies ample evidence of Tat'iana's
conflicting emotions in anticipation of her impending tête-à-tête with
Onegin. While the occasional musical references (descending fifths in the
woodwind) to Scene 2, the Letter Scene, make it clear that Tat'iana has
not lost her feelings for Onegin entirely, the dominant thematic material
is based on Gremin's aria [No. 20a] with a quotation from Lenskii's final
aria, "Chto den' griadushchii mne goto vit" [No. 17] as an important
counterpoint [No. 22, A, PS, 488-91]. Tat'iana, in other words, is fully
conscious of her position as Gremin's wife and at the same time cannot
forget or ignore the fact that Onegin killed Lenskii. This opening section is
followed by an orchestral passage of considerable agitation, "convulsive
nervous rhythms" in the words of Asafev and described by Brown as
a "tiny three semi-quaver motif of disquiet that has erupted throughout
the opera in moments when inner stress has briefly manifested itself in
outward agitation."26 First heard (twice) in the Letter Scene, its form in
Scene 7 recalls most vividly the passage in Scene 3 when Tat'iana had
previously awaited Onegin in the garden. This time, however, it resolves
into a held E in the horns and clarinets underpinned by diminished 7th
chords in the strings, a harmonic and textural pattern that, significantly, is

25. This function is not unique to Scene 7. For a discussion of it in Scene 6,


for example, see Shol'p, 'Evgenii Onegin' Chaikovskogo, p. 69.
26. Asafev, "'Evgenii Onegin'," Vol. 2, p. 123; Brown, Tchaikovsky, Vol. 2,
p. 208.

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288 I Canadian Slavonic Papers June-September 1987

to be found at the opening of Scene 5, the Duel Scene [No 22, B-C, PS, 491-
94; No 12, PS, 221-23; No 17, PS, 357-58].
The subsequent long section, in which Tat'iana reminds Onegin of his
rejection of her in the garden, demonstrates how Chaikovskii uses the
borrowed musical material. Once again the central portion of this section
is based on the melody of Gremin's aria transposed (as in the introduction
to Scene 7) at the third (Phrygian mode).27 However, as Tat'iana becomes
increasingly agitated, she gradually stretches the compass of the original
phrases until, at the climax - where she intimates some far from honourable
motives for Onegin's interest - she once again resorts to a modified version
of the Lenskii motif [No 22, G-J, PS, 500-506].
Chaikovskii uses quotation of and reference to earlier material in
a similar way for Onegin's music, even though the image he wishes to
create of the title-hero is quite different. Onegin has three extended solo
passages in Scene 7, of which the first two are identical musically, though
the words set are different. Throughout, the musical material provides an
underlying irony in linking these sections, in which Onegin pleads for
Tat'iana to respond to his declarations of love, with his rejection of Tat'ia-
na in Scene 3. This irony is authorial in that the primary linkage is through
the orchestral accompaniment; the two identical sections [No 22, K and N,
PS, 506-509 and 512-14] have the same basic time signature (3/2) with
a counterpoint of triplet arpeggios in the violins against held wind chords
as in the first part of Onegin's response [No. 12, T-X, PS, 229-32], although
the steady bass of the earlier scene is replaced by a somewhat more agitated
staccato bass line. The parallels in Onegin's third extended solo passage
(following Tat'iana's admission of love and then her avowal of faithfulness
to her husband) are particularly significant. His argument that Tat'iana's
fate is linked with him and not with Gremin is musically connected with
the passage in Scene 3 in which he had justified his rejection of Tat'iana.
This pointedly ironic connection is again produced by strong textural
parallels in the orchestral accompaniment: against rising eighth-note
figures in the upper strings, the cellos and bassoon provide a melodic
counterpoint which, in Scene 3, was distinct from the vocal line, but here
doubles it in the middle section [No. 22, Q-R, PS, 521-24; No. 12, Y, PS,
234-35]. Onegin's vocal line has become even less dynamic than it had been
before. Throughout the opera Onegin's basic coldness is reflected in the
deliberate limitations of his vocal line - in compass, rhythmic variety, and

27. Krasinskaia (Opernaia melodika, p. 91) suggests that the Phrygian mode
had been used in opera since the seventeenth century to indicate "sorrow."

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Vol. xxix, Nos. 2&3 Evgenii Onegin: Novel to Opera | 289

even key - with the result that much of it has a recitative flavour.28 In this
section of Scene 7, the highly restricted rhythmic nature, compass, and
harmonic structure underscore that, for all the apparent anguish of his
words, Onegin remains emotionally empty and sterile: the vocal line consists
predominantly of eighth notes and contains only a single half note and
only one fermata (in the final cadence, where we also find the only arpeggio);
the compass is that of a ninth, but in fact for most of the passage it is
confined to the range of only a fifth; the restricted harmonic structure is
shown by the bass, consisting primarily of held, often static, notes in the
double basses. By contrast, in the final section of his sermon in Scene 3, the
vocal line contains arpeggio figures, wide intervallic leaps, and considerable
rhythmic dynamism, all of which are atypical for Onegin's vocal line as a
whole. As a result, the music strongly indicates that Chaikovskii's Onegin
had been emotionally much more honest and forthright in rejecting
Tatïana than he was in the final scene where he pleads for her love.
Borrowed musical material also provides essential information about
the emotional change that occurs in Tat'iana during the course of Scene 7.
The dominance of material drawn from Gremin's aria in Tat'iana's vocal
line disappears, while material drawn from her Letter Scene increases. At
the same time, material associated with Lenskii is constantly present. Here
also irony plays a not insignificant role, but it is in the vocal line itself.
There can be no doubt of the irony underlying the fact that the music which

28. Asaf ev speaks of "ton-govor" (" 'Evgenii Onegin'," p. 179), Iakovlev of


"ravnodushnye intonatsii" (Pushkin i muzyka, p. 103). In her recent study of the
melodic principles in Evgenii Onegin, Liia Krasinskaia notes that in general this
opera is noteworthy for its "rhythmic simplicity" and "speech rhythms" with
a preponderance of "movement in equal time values," most particularly eighth
notes (Opernaia melodika, pp. 78-79). At the same time, it is interesting to note the
extent to which her discussion of the melodic system of the opera is based on the
music of the other characters (primarily Tat'iana and Lenskii, of course) and not
Onegin. Similarly, she points to the highly unusual way in which the line of Onegin's
music is broken up in Scene 3 and Scene 7, based on the artificial unit of the poetic
line, rather than on the semantic unit which is so important in the music of the
other characters. It is also noteworthy that where Krasinskaia argues for a "new
Onegin," now subject to emotions, in Scenes 6 and 7, she confines her example
to Scene 6, which does contain the most dynamic section of Onegin's entire part
("Alas! There can be no doubt./ 1 am in love" [No. 21, V, PS, 473-78]), but which
is (ironically again) an exact reprise of Tat'iana's "Even if I die" in her Letter
Scene [No. 9, E, PS, 145-50], and notes that in general Onegin's part lacks the
"floating descending melody" typical of Tat'iana and Lenskii (pp. 92-93).

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290 I Revue Canadienne des Slavistes Juin-Septembre 1987

follows on the momentary intimacy implied by the short duet, "O Lord!
How unhappy I am, how miserable!" and Onegin's subsequent anguished
plea, is derived from the Letter Scene, and particularly from the section
that begins with the words "No, I would have given my heart to no one else
on earth!" It begins with a rising sixth, followed by downward and upward
arpeggios over a seventh, concluding with a third phrase again stretching
over a seventh, before descending a halftone onto the mediant. The leap of
a sixth, the use of the compass of a seventh in the phrase contours, and the
descent of a minor second at the end of a phrase are all features of the
earlier scene.29 Furthermore, the tonality here shifts to "Tat'iana's
tonality" of D flat major, the tonality of the most emotional sections of the
Letter Scene [No. 22, O, PS, 514-15; No. 9, J, D-E, L-N, PS, 166-67, 145-
50, 172-86]. As earlier with the Gremin material, Chaikovskii introduces
modifications; in this case, while the melodic contours remain derivative,
the use of a bare skeletal structure increases the emotional impact. This
same musical material is then used as the basis for the final duet, although
with a dramatic shift from minor into major, first heard in the orchestra
immediately after Tat'iana's admission, "I love you."30
The concluding section is then dominated by musical material associated
with Lenskii. Tat'iana's repeated protestions are in Lenskii's tonality of
E minor. The characteristic emphasis on the note E, rising the minor third
to G, before settling on the dominant, B, yet again contains an underlying
element of irony, because it is strongly reminiscent of Lenskii's rejection
of Onegin as a friend and his farewell to Ol'ga in the scene of the Larin
Ball [No. 22, S, PS, 527-28; No. 15, R, PS, 319-21; No. 16, W, PS, 353].
Onegin's final cry (to words that gave Chaikovskii a great deal of trouble
before he ultimately settled on "Shame! anguish! O, pitiful fate!") then
dissolves into the orchestra's last bars - a series of E minor chords in the
low register for the entire orchestra- the same chord and instrumental

29. A sixth, occasionally falling (as in the "No, I would have given my heart
to no one else on earth!" section), but more commonly rising, is a particularly
notable feature of the melodic patterns of the Letter Scene.
30. As Asafev pointed out (" 'Evgenii Onegin'," p. 125), the sevenths that
are so prominent an element of this melodic material are different in the two parts.
Tat'iana's are major sevenths, which provide an expectation for the music to rise,
a symbol of determination. Onegin's are diminished sevenths, where the expecta-
tion is that the music will fall, a symbol of pleading.

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Vol. xxix, Nos. 2&3 Evgenii Onegin: Novel to Opera | 291

texture that had concluded Scene 4, the scene of the challenge to the duel
[No. 22, U, PS, 534; No. 16, X, PS, 356pi
Even a cursory examination of Scene 7 reveals that to suggest that
Chaikovskii simply dramatized Pushkin's tête-à-tête into a dialogue
ignores the vital role of the musical material itself. Throughout the scene,
the music functions as a distinct narrative voice with two principal pur-
poses. On the one hand, just like Pushkin's narrator, it provides com-
mentary (frequently - and this is particularly the case with Onegin - in the
orchestra) by recalling material heard earlier in the opera, the words or
circumstances of which now appear in an ironic light or which emphasize
the tragic aspects, especially of Tat'iana's position. On the other hand, the
music also provides essential insights into the psychology of the protagonists.
Thus the vocal line of Onegin's three solo sections in Scene 7 underscores
the fact that, whatever he may say, his basic character has not changed.
As for Tat'iana, in Chaikovskii's opera the country girl, the prezhniaia
Tat'iana, is constantly evident in the urban grande dame. While her sense
of uxorial duty (as evidenced by her use of the modified theme from Gre-
min's aria) gradually weakens under pressure from Onegin and reminiscences
of her youthful love become increasingly strong (as shown by quotations
from her Letter Scene), it is quite clear that for Chaikovskii, the principal
obstacle to her rapprochement with Onegin is in fact not her sense of duty
but her consciousness of Onegin as Lenskii's murderer. Lenskii's theme
from his last aria and his tonality constantly assert and reassert them-
selves - even her final departure is to music derived from Lenskii's and not
Gremin's. These constant references to music associated with Lenskii
make the ghost of the poet a very tangible presence, virtually a third
protagonist throughout this "tête-à-tête." It is thus the music, acting both
as narrative voice and psychological key, that not only bears Chaikovskii's
assessment of his protagonists, but also illustrates his understanding of
the essential dramatic content of Pushkin's novel, namely the ultimate
unforgivable crime of the title-hero, the fact that "a bored society lion,
out of boredom, out of petty irritation, against his will, as a result of a
fateful coincidence of circumstances, takes the life of a young man whom,
in essence, he loves!"32

3 1 . Brown refers to this chord as signifying "painful doomed love" {Tchaikov-


sky, Vol. 2, p. 194), but its association with the Duel Scene seems more evocative.
32. PSLP, Vol. 12, p. 247.

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