Puskai pogibnu ya (Letter Scene) (Eugene Onegin, op. 24)

Tchaikovsky started Eugene Onegin in 1877 with Tatyana's letter scene, which he wrote before anything else, and finished the score the following year. He called the result lyrical scenes rather than an opera and refused a professional theatre for the first performance, giving it instead to students of the Moscow Conservatory, who staged it at the Maly Theatre on 29 March 1879 under Nikolai Rubinstein; he thought the work needed sincerity more than technique. Pushkin's novel in verse offers little action. Tchaikovsky selected seven scenes and let the omissions stand, trusting the music to supply what is missing.