Onegin again

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

30 March 06

Dear Colleagues,

During the 2004-2005 season the San Francisco Opera performed 
Chaikovskii's version of Pushkin's _Evgenii Onegin_.  I quote from the 
program notes that were handed to all of us as we entered the hall:

"After all the guests have left the ball, Onegin desperately tries to 
convinve himself that he feels just as passionately about Tatyana as she 
once felt toward him." (from "Synopsis," p. iii)

"He [Chaikovskii] became the veritable whipping boy for Romanticism's 
worst sins of excess: sentimental self-indulgence, overwrought 
emotionalism, and - most tellingly, given the thinly veiled misogyny and 
homophobia of the charge - out-of-control 'hysteria'.  'Too much 
information' seemed to be the uneasy refrain from the guardians of 
taste."  (Commentary by Thomas May, p. vi).

"Underlying this catastrophe [the duel with Lenskii] is the 
unacknowledged suggestion that Onegin has experienced feelings for 
Lensky transcending pure friendship.  But instead of openly avowing his 
emotions. . . ." (Commentary by Johannes Schaaf and Wolfgang Willaschek, 
p. ix).

"It was of course difficult for Tchaikovsky to openly acknowledge his 
homoerotic tendencies in the society of his time,  His famous 
relationship with his nephew Bob mirrors the admiration that Onegin 
cherishes for Lensky."  (Ibidem, p. xi).

"Onegin admires Lensky for a poetic vein, which in his own case comes 
out as sarcasm or irony.  He feels a tight connection to Lensky - not 
unlike the attraction Socrates felt for Alcibiades."  (Ibidem, p. xii).

"Onegin kills what he loves most. . . . "  (Ibidem, p. xii).


These comments, it seems to me, demonstrate that Onegin's latent 
homosexuality - or his gayness, if you prefer - is detectable even by 
non-psychoanalysts.


Regards to the list,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------