Tatiana in ball gown

Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin, created in 1879, is based on the novel in verse by Aleksandr Pushkin. The creation in French was given at the Monnaie Opera House on 25 February 1955, in collaboration with the St. Petersburg Opera.

Only five new costumes were made for the French version. The remaining costumes came from other productions. This was common practice in the theatre: whenever the situation or period evoked permitted, the costumes and even certain elements of the décor were recuperated from similar productions.

It was therefore the leading role which benefitted from the most beautiful creations. Here, it was a red silk velour ball gown with a scarf and décor in silver lamé designed for the leading female role, that of Tatiana. Suzanne Fabry always made great efforts in her drawings to evoke the personality or character of the role, here portrayed via the fullness of the dress and the haughty aspect of the face and attitude.

Bibliography:
Jacqueline Guisset, Une vie à l’opéra, La Renaissance du Livre, Crédit Communal, 2000, p.117