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Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes
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NICHOLAS G. ZEKULIN
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280 I Canadian Slavonic Papers June-September 1987
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Vol. xxix, Nos. 2&3 Evgenii Onegin: Novel to Opera | 281
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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
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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
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
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
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
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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
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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
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