In the story, the title character receives a touching love letter from an earnest young woman - and rejects her out of hand, with disastrous consequences. Then, during the same month, a friend introduced him to Eugene Onegin, a verse novel by Pushkin, thinking it might make a good opera. In the spring of 1877, he received one from a music student he hardly remembered from the Moscow Conservatory. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky knew all about love letters. A love letter takes real courage - the courage to ponder your fondest hopes, carefully put them down on paper, drop them in the mail and then wait, helplessly, for a reply. But before the time of instant communication it was often done with a love letter, and a letter is more than just an impulse. These days, that sort of risk is often taken without truly thinking about it: in a spontaneous e-mail reply, an ill-considered IM or a reckless tweet. Tatyana (soprano Tamar Iveri) appeals to Onegin (baritone Simon Keenlyside) in the Vienna production of Tchaikovsky's opera.īut even those who seldom take physical risks will often take a chance that may be even more intimidating - making what might be called a "romantic plunge." That happens when you fall so hard for someone that you simply spill it, telling your new heartthrob exactly how you feel without knowing if those feelings are mutual.
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