Yesterday’s matinee performance at the Metropolitan Opera of Pyotr Tchaikovsky‘s opera, Eugene Onegin, was superb, of course. Tick off the categories: music–gorgeous; set design–evocative; singing–sublime; and acting–engrossing (I actually felt sorry for Onegin despite his well-deserved fate; Igor Golovatenko‘s portrayal was that good!).
But this post is not a review so much as an addendum. One aspect that didn’t receive much attention in the playbill was the notion of the “superfluous man,” a concept central to Alexander Pushkin‘s prose poem of the same name on which Tchaikovsky based his opera. The idea originated as an offshoot of the “Byronic hero,” the antithesis of Napoleon’s “Great Man,” a concept which dominated much of 19th-century literature. Unlike Napoleon, Pushkin’s conceit is of a man born into wealth and privilege who possesses a cynical disregard for social norms and is filled with existential ennui, a thematic staple for Russian authors ranging from Mikhail Lermontov to Ivan Turgenev to Ivan Gonchorov. A product of what one critic called “a by-product of Russian serfdom,” the superfluous man is fated to a life devoid of love or purpose. As a result, his major course of action is to manipulate, degrade or pacify others in order to gain more comfort and security for himself because he has little belief or interest in using his power for the common good.
Aside from the privileged background, do the above character traits remind you of anyone contemporary? Let me know in the Comments section.
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