Yevgeni Onegin

I saw this film when first released -- I was still at school in Perth, Western Australia. (Perth WA may have been one of the most isolated cities in the world but it worked at bringing the world to us, including the university's summer film festival of the latest movies from everywhere -- and it still is, and still actively connects with the world.) The film made an indelible impression, I've loved opera ever since. And I love the reviews here.

Travelling around the world in 1968, straight after university, I was taken to Glyndbourne, and the opera I saw was Onegin!

I loved the outright romanticism of the film, the music of course, the singing, everything. I knew at the time that it was highly stylised (including the rich colours) but I loved that too.

And now, returning to singing lessons as an aging amateur tenor, I am working on M. Triquet's couplets -- I remembered them from the film over 60 years ago!