Due to his passion for pursuing a career in music, Tchaikovsky left his job at the Ministry of Justice and enrolled at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He eventually left a bountiful and ravishing musical heritage. The well polished Suite No. 3 unfolds in sequence of Élégie, Valse mélancolique, Scherzo, and Tema con variazioni, always flowing with enchanting melodies. “Let me perish, but first let me summon, in dazzling hope the magic poison of desire.” (Onegin’s narration from Eugene Onegin) Eugene Onegin, Pushkin’s novel in verse written in 1830, is a beloved classic of modern Russian literature. Closely following passages in Pushkin’s original novel and retaining much of his poetry, Tchaikovsky’s opera with the same title brought him his first and most enduring success. Onegin, a shady nobleman, and Tatyana, a prudent and sentimental lass brought up in the countryside, will tell the stories of their youth, desolation, remorse, and anguish in this excerpt performance.