"I confess with pleasure that your opera [Eugene Onegin] made a very deep impression upon me - an impression such as I expect from a true work of art, and I do not hesitate to say that none of your compositions has given me such pleasure.

It is a splendid work, full of warm feeling and poetry, and, at the same time, worked out to the last detail; in short, this music speaks to us and penetrates so deep into our soul that it is unforgettable.

I congratulate you and ourselves on this work and pray God that you may be spared to give the world many more such compositions."

- Antonin Dvorak, to Tchaikovsky

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"I spit upon 'effects'! Besides what are effects? .... I want to handle human beings, not puppets. I would gladly compose an opera which was completely lacking in startling effects, but which offered characters resembling my own, whose feelings and experiences I shared and understood.... I want no kings, no gods, no pompous marches - in short, none of those things which are the attributes of 'grand opera.'"

- Tchaikovsky

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Eugene Onegin, by P. Tchaikovsky, is an opera in three acts. Performances were held March 5th-15st at 8pm. Location: Lowell House Dining Hall (10 Holyoke Place, Cambridge, MA 02138). Map to Lowell House. Lowell House Opera, the longest running opera tradition in New England, presents Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, drawing upon surrealist images in Pushkin's original masterpiece novel-in-verse and incorporating illusions from the world of magic. Dreamy young Tatiana's passionate love for the disenchanted but magnetic Onegin threatens to ruin her life and reputation in the 19th century Russian provinces. However, fate intervenes, and a duel and a death eventually lead the characters to St. Petersburg to meet their tragic fates. A Russian classic, Eugene Onegin was written in 1877, just one year after Tchaikovsky completed his famous ballet, Swan Lake.