'Eugen Onegin' , the most popular opera of Pyotr Ilych Tschaikowsky (1840-1893), is widely considered a theatrical masterpiece. Adapted from a novel in verse form by Aleksandr Pushkin, it is the tale of a jaded Russian aristocrat who scorns the love of Tatyana, an attractive young girl of the provincial petty nobility. Nineteenth-century Russian operas almost invariably abound in set dance numbers. 'Eugen Onegin', composed in 1877, is no exception. Several of its dances, though, are not merely ...