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.