The play, based on Alexander Pushkin's verse novel "Eugene Onegin", features music written especially for this work by composer Sergei Prokofiev for the first time in Europe. In this performance, the actors were entrusted not only with A. Pushkin's verse text, but also choral parts and dances.
The novel, written in iambic quatrains or so-called "Oneginian stanzas", was published in 1833. The story line of the novel is well known to everyone: the bored, arrogant cynic Eugene Onegin rejects Tatiana, who fell in love with him, and later meets the same fate himself. The work is full of philosophical insights, autobiographical details, and eloquently depicts the society of tsarist Russia. According to Russian literary critic Visarion Belinskis, A. Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" is like a 19th century. encyclopedia of early Russian life.
S. Prokofiev wrote the music for "Eugene Onegin" in 1937 for the 100th anniversary of A. Pushkin's death. The premiere, which was supposed to take place in Moscow at that time, was removed from the repertoire by the censors, and the composer's piece disappeared from sight for a long time. S. Prokofiev used music fragments in his other works: "Cinderella", "War and Peace", etc. The complete piece, performed by a symphony orchestra, was performed on the stage of the theater for the first time only in 2012 in the USA - at that time, the text of the novel read by the actors was interpreted by dancers.
In 2013, commemorating the 60th anniversary of S. Prokofiev's death, the music was played for the first time in Europe during the premiere of this performance in the Vilnius Old Theater.
"Vaitkus gives form to each scene, gives meaning to each mise-en-scène, makes each "screenshot" professional, logical, uses music not for the background, meaningfully controls the light score; however, one cannot help but feel that the "opera-ballet" being staged has become the drama of Onegin - the vampiric Don Juan." (Daiva Šabasevičienė)
The show is shown in Russian with Lithuanian subtitles
Photos by Dmitry Matveev
