Rejection Letter

“I have not yet said a tenth part of what I want to say,” Tchaikovsky once wrote his patron. “My heart is full. It thirsts to pour itself out in music.” Music was one way he expressed himself; he also wrote countless letters, and there’s even a wax cylinder recording of Tchaikovsky speaking. It’s fun, if pointless, to speculate about what communication channels Tchaikovsky would favor were he living among us now. Would he keep a blog? Would he tweet? Would he keep in touch with his brothers by video call, or would he text them incessantly? Perhaps he would still write letters.

Tatyana writes a long, passionate love letter in the privacy of her room. Photo: Eugene Onegin, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, 2017 © Cory Weaver.

Literature and Legacy of Alexander Pushkin

Located in central Moscow, this famous statue of Alexander Pushkin was dedicated in 1880 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

The wild story of Alexander Pushkin’s life resembles characters from dramas written by the author himself. Pushkin was born in Moscow in 1799 to a family with a long and complicated history in Russia. His father descended from an ancient aristocratic line who had fallen on hard times. On the other side, Pushkin’s maternal great-grandfather was the nobleman and military leader Abram Petrovich Gannibal. Kidnapped as a child from present-day Cameroon, Gannibal was brought to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great, who ended up adopting him as a godson. When Peter’s daughter Elizabeth assumed power, Gannibal served as a member of her court. Pushkin celebrated his storied lineage, even as his African heritage at times alienated him from Russian society.

Charlie Parker’s Yardbird: an operatic tale of a jazz legend

Joshua Stewart alternates in the title role of Charlie Parker along with tenor Frederick Ballentine. 

Black artistry and storytelling surround Seattle Opera’s next production: Charlie Parker's Yardbird, which plays Feb. 22–March 7, 2020 at McCaw Hall. Tickets start at $35

In the centennial year of legendary alto-saxophonist Charlie Parker, one company is using opera to tell a story about jazz. Seattle Opera presents Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, a work created by saxophonist and composer Daniel Schnyder and Bridgette Wimberly, an award-winning poet and playwright.

“While I wanted the opera to be about Parker’s real life, I did not want it to be a typical biography,” Wimberly said. “I searched for those private stories that helped us understand him as son, husband, musician, and man. His mother Addie sings about the fear of her son being lynched, as well as her pride and love for the musician he has become. When he dies, she sings of the pain in her heart. Through her story, we understand Parker’s.”

Who was Alexander Pushkin?

Pushkin, author of the original novel in verse Eugene Onegin, occupies a unique place in Russian literature. Russians don’t simply view him as their greatest poet; he is the symbol of Russian culture itself. 

A literary legacy 

Pushkin’s prose spans a remarkable range: from satires to epistolary tales, from light comedies to romantic adventures in the manner of Sir Walter Scott, from travel narratives to historical fiction. The haunting dream world of The Queen of Spades draws on his own experiences with high-stakes society gambling. The five short stories of The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin are deceptively light as they reveal astonishing human depths, and his short novel, The Captain’s Daughter, a love story set during the Cossack rebellion against Catherine the Great, has been called the most perfect book in Russian literature. Pushkin’s life and work have acquired mythic status. Deeply playful and experimental, the writer adopted a vast array of conflicting masks and personae. His writing is serious, then ironic—then ironic at his own irony—on moral and philosophical themes. A philosophical fox, Pushkin appreciated the limitations, as well as the virtues, of any set of ideas.

Listen now to our Eugene Onegin podcast

Production photo: Eugene Onegin, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, 2017. Photo by Cory Weaver.

Curious to learn more about Tchaikovsky's masterpiece, Eugene Onegin? (FYI, this Russian last name is pronounced “oh-NYAY-ghin,” where the “G” is like “goose”). In this recent podcast by Seattle Opera, the company's in-house dramaturg Jonathan Dean says try focusing on the journey through romance and poetry, rather than on a happily-ever-after ending. 

"You don't have to understand Russian to understand the heartsick sigh of love's longing that opens this opera," Dean says. "That's what Eugene Onegin does so well: it delivers a story in this wonderfully tender and intimate way. The story gives us the real experience of love, translated into music: the excitement, the frustration, the bliss, the bitterness—all the passion. Love does not work out for the protagonists of this opera. But Eugene Onegin is not a tragedy; it's too close to life for that. And if you're wary of operas that are real or relatable, if you go to the opera to escape into a richer, more vivid world—fear not! Eugene Onegin is also a gloriously entertaining romantic opera on a grand scale.”