Onegin: Pushkin story, Tchaikovsky opera, Russian tragedy and dance drama, leavened with French comedy and revived at Glyndebourne this season in Graham Vick’s famous production from 1994. His datelessly simple set allows beauty and symbolism to the light, the shadows and one plain chair. In turn, Tatyana and Onegin sit with their backs to the audience. We must imagine what we may not see – but we can hear.

Russian principals sing their own language with the passionate intensity of Russian souls in a mother tongue. The outstandingly rich and resounding tenor of Edgaras Montvidas made Olga’s defection hard to grasp, especially given her more defined character by Ekaterina Sergeeva.

And only a Russian bass really reaches the register required for Gremin, Taras Shtonda, to demonstrate his depth of love.

Omer Meir Welber electrified the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The young Israeli conductor/composer, making his Glyndebourne debut, has already assisted Daniel Barenboim at Berlin Staatsoper and conducted his way around major European opera houses. With prodigious energy, he summoned as much commitment and passion from the pit as was ever heard on stage. This peerless Eugene Onegin, a truly sensational combination of art forms, makes the magic that is opera at its utmost.