Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin’s novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, published in separate chapters between 1825 and 1837, inspired Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to create his musical and dramatic masterpiece. The lyrical chamber opera in 3 acts, 7 pictures, Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, stands out for its vivid portrayal of characters built with clear imagery and deep emotion. (The libretto is by Konstantin Shilovsky. It was premiered on 29 March 1879 at the Maly Theatre in Moscow.)

In the 1870s Tchaikovsky composed the ballet Swan Lake, the Symphonies No. 2, 3, and 4, the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1, Melancholy Serenade for Orchestra, Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra, and others. And although in the autumn of 1877 the composer experienced a severe psychic crisis, he worked hard on the opera during 1877-1878. The composer said there would be little action in the work, but he was in love with the character of  Tatiana, fascinated by Pushkin’s poems and wrote music to them because he was irresistibly drawn to them, wanting to express ordinary, most intimate feelings.

These feelings also constitute Lensky’s famous pre-mortem aria from the 5th picture, before his senseless duel against Onegin, in which Lensky is killed. He reflects on his love for his fiancée Olga and on a youth that has now irretrievably passed. The aria is deeply saddening and at the same time filled with a resigned foreboding of death.

The emotionally intense and expansive melodic line provoked the creation of instrumental transcriptions that have become established as concert repertoire. The most famous of these is that of Leopold Auer for violin and piano, performed by a number of major musicians. It became the basis of versions for violin and symphony or string orchestra.