The Metropolitan Opera: Eugene Onegin

Eugene Onegin is a three-act opera by Tchaikovsky based on Pushkin's verse novel. Act 1 opens at the rural Larin estate, where the dreamy, novel-obsessed young Tatyana meets the visiting Eugene Onegin, a bored and urbane aristocrat who has come to the country after inheriting a nearby property. His friend Vladimir Lensky is engaged to Tatyana's sister Olga. Tatyana falls immediately and deeply in love with Onegin. Unable to sleep, she confesses her feelings to her old nurse and writes Onegin a passionate letter declaring that she believes fate has destined them for each other. Onegin arrives at the estate to respond in person: he lets her down with cool, practiced kindness, saying he is not suited to love or marriage and can offer only brotherly friendship. He warns her against wearing her heart so openly, and leaves her crushed. Act 2 takes place at a name-day ball held for Tatyana. Onegin, irritated by the provincial gossip swirling about him and Tatyana, decides to punish Lensky for dragging him there by flirting ostentatiously with Olga and monopolizing her dances. Lensky is consumed by jealousy and publicly denounces Onegin, issuing a challenge to a duel. Both men recognize the absurdity of the quarrel as they meet at dawn by a wooded stream, yet neither can bring himself to back down. Onegin fires and kills Lensky. Five years later, Act 3 opens at a glittering St. Petersburg ball. Onegin, returned from wandering Europe in hollow self-exile, sees Tatyana again — now the composed and admired wife of Prince Gremin, a wealthy and devoted older general. Gremin speaks of his wife with open tenderness, and Onegin is struck with sudden, overwhelming love for the woman he dismissed. He writes her a letter begging for a meeting. When they meet privately at Gremin's house, he pours out his passion. Tatyana is visibly moved and admits she still loves him — but she refuses him. She will not betray her husband or abandon the life of dignity she has made for herself. She bids Onegin farewell, and he is left alone with the consequences of his earlier indifference.

Sources: Wikipedia