With the exception of Borodin's Prince Igor and perhaps one or two other works, I've not been a fan of Russian operas, even by composers I admire greatly. I find Rachmaninoff's operas instantly forgettable, Boris Godunov not quite worth the effort, and most (but not all) of Prokofiev's offerings silly or overblown. Stravinsky's got some wonderful works, but a good many of them are actually not in Russian (Rake's Progress, Oedipus rex, etc.) The couple of operas by Tchaikovsky that I've heard also do not, on the whole, impress me. But, this month's selection—Eugene Onegin—does have a few moments of really nice material. The waltz that opens Act II is, of course, the most famous part of the work, and, before I had heard the entire opera, the only part I had known. Alas, much of the rest of the opera is musically highly uninteresting. Two parts do stand out, though, both of them choral in nature. There is a chorus and dance of peasants in the first act which seamlessly melds typically Tchaikovskian flights of melody, walking pizzicati low strings and sumptuous orchestration, with sections, especially toward the beginning, that sound like something straight out of Rachmaninoff's jaw-droppingly wonderful Vespers. This month's clip also is a bit off the beaten path, and better for it. Bringing to mind the terrific vocal/orchestral textures of Berlioz, this chorus from near the end of Act I is delightful through and through.