By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 19 March 2006]

Thought, dream, reality: where does one end and the other begin? It’s a question the Royal Opera’s new production of Eugene Onegin constantly poses as it follows Tatyana from the naïve open steppes of the Larina estate to the fur- coated sophistication of St Petersburg. Past, present and future are strung together on the thread of the wish running through them – the wish of romantic fulfilment. Reminiscence and anticipation haunt Pushkin’s tale as they do Tchaikovsky’s music, both poised between a past they recapitulate and a future they foretell.