Admission: $1.50

Tchaikovsky's famous opera, based on the novel in verse by Pushkin, has been brilliantly realized in this color film version. Film actress Ariadna Shengelaya (wife of Soviet Georgian film director Eldar Shengelaya) gives a sensitive performance as Tatiana, the modest provincial girl who becomes a noblewoman in 19th-century Russia. The internationally famous singer, Ivan Petrov, both acts and sings the role of Gremin, Tatiana's husband. The Orchestra and Chorus of the Bolshoi Theatre are conducted by Boris Haikin, one of the finest interpreters of Tchaikovsky's music. Tatiana's famous “Letter Scene” and Onegin's soliloquies are heard both as interior thoughts as well as outward comments in a way that is impossible on stage. In another illustration of Tikhomirov's filmic daring, Onegin's arias before and after the Act 3 ball are sung as he is walking through the streets of St. Petersburg.