Evening at the Opera, Tuesdays at 8:00 pM

June 3

Peter Shimkin: Eugene Onegin (in English) - Tchaikovsky

Based on the play by Pushkin, it is the story of a man who abandons a love, only to be haunted by that love later in life.

Plot summary: Tatyana, a romantic young woman, falls in love with the aloof Eugene Onegin and writes him a heartfelt letter, but he coldly rejects her. Later, at a party, Onegin flirts with Tatyana’s sister Olga to spite his friend Lensky, leading to a duel in which Onegin kills Lensky. Years later, Onegin returns and falls in love with the now-married Tatyana, but she refuses his advances, choosing loyalty to her husband over rekindled passion.

June 10

Mel Siegel, live: Music from classical Greece

Opera originated when a group of Florentines imagined what Greek music might have sounded like and often used subjects from and about ancient Greece in libretti.

June 17

Peter Shimkin: The Golden Cockerel - Rimsky-Korsakov

This is the final opera completed by Rimsky-Korsakov. It’s filled with amazing orchestral colors and biting sarcasm pointed toward the aristocracy.

Plot summary: Tsar Dodon receives a magical Golden Cockerel from an astrologer to protect his kingdom, promising any reward in return. After disastrous wars and the loss of his sons, Dodon falls for the enchanting Queen of Shemakha and brings her home. When the astrologer claims the queen as his reward, Dodon kills him, but is then killed by the cockerel; the queen and cockerel vanish, and the astrologer reveals that only he and the queen were real, with everything else being an illusion.

June 23

Barry Gold continues his series “Voices without Borders.” Tonight his theme is “Five Sopranos,” celebrating five operatic sopranos of international acclaim.