Russian Opera Workshop

Early in 1890, Tchaikovsky simply needed to get away. Writing to Glazunov, he admits he can't figure out what the "devil" is wrong with him. He experiences both "life-weariness" and at the same time a "passionate desire to create." Staying in Florence he composed much of Pique Dame.

Summer workshop participants will be able to download transliterations, translations and pronunciation sound files well ahead of the program start




VOICE TYPE / ROLE NAME

Soprano: Tatyana
Contralto (or Mezzo): Olga
Mezzo-Sopranos: Larina, Filipievna
Tenors: Lensky, Triquet
Baritone: Eugene Onegin
Basses: Prince Gremin, Zaretsky, Captain

Rossen Milanov is an Associate Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra and Artistic Director of The Philadelphia Orchestra at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts. Bulgarian-born Milanov is fluent in Russian and is passionate about Russian repertoire. Full Biography.

Nikolai Rubinstein conducted the Musical Society concert premiere of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet. The audience revered Rubinstein, but the musical performance was not a success with the public

Tchaikovsky sketched out a scene including duet and appearance of the nurse, but the opera was never written. After Tchaikovsky's death, composer Sergei Taneyev published the original duet with reconstructed introduction based on themes from the overture.

At the suggestion of Mily Balakirev, Tchaikovsky began working on Romeo and Juliet Overture in 1869. The work is based on the Shakespeare's tragedy and is dedicated to Mily Balakirev

By 1878, Romeo and Juliet played in most musical capitals. In a letter to his patron Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky comments that the overture plays without success. In Vienna and Paris the audience even 'hissed.'