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Alexander Pushkin

The latest news and comment on Alexander Pushkin

May 2023

  • A monument to Pushkin stands in Pushkin park in central Kyiv.

    Pushkin must fall: monuments to Russia’s national poet under threat in Ukraine

    Since last February’s invasion more than 30 statues of the 19th-century poet seen as a symbol for tsarist imperialism have been dismantled

December 2022

  • Staring into the abyss … Anton Walbrook as Captain Suvorin in The Queen of Spades.

    The Queen of Spades review – thrillingly addictive tale of gambling and sin

    Thorold Dickinson’s 1949 Pushkin adaptation is a glorious melodrama about an ambitious Russian military officer and a countess who sold her soul to the devil in exchange for the secrets of a card game

January 2020

  • Could this be a ride? … still from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, based on Stephen King’s novel.

    Books blog
    A Pushkin theme park? How about Discworld World, StephenKingLand …

  • Natalia Osipova (Tatiana) and Reece Clarke (Onegin) in Onegin by The Royal Ballet @ ROH. Choreography by John Cranko. Conducted by Valery Ovsyanikov. (Opening 18-01-20) ©Tristram Kenton 01/20 (3 Raveley Street, LONDON NW5 2HX TEL 0207 267 5550 Mob 07973 617 355)email: tristram@tristramkenton.com

    Onegin review – Natalia Osipova thrills with ecstatic, lovestruck obsession

April 2018

  • Natalya Romaniw as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. Scottish Opera 2018. Credit James Glossop. (2)

    Eugene Onegin review – a grand production of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece

  • Alexander Pushkin circa 1827 by the Russian portraitist Orest Kiprensky.

    Pushkin descendant puts Russian poet’s turbulent life on stage for first time

March 2018

  • Joaquin Phoenix and Ekaterina Samsonov in the film version of You Were Never Really Here.

    Books blog
    Brief encounters: what are the best short novels?

    It won’t take much longer to read You Were Never Really Here than watch the new film – so it’s a good moment to celebrate the lasting joys of brevity

December 2017

  • People marked the 180th anniversary of Pushkin’s death at a monument in St Petersburg.

    Books blog
    Pushkin's pride: how the Russian literary giant paid tribute to his African ancestry

    His black great-grandfather was abducted as a child and raised in Peter the Great’s court. A new Pushkin translation includes the little-known history of Russia’s Shakespeare

October 2017

  • Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Eugene Onegin) and Nicole Car (Tatyana) in Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky @ Royal Opera House. Conductor, Semyon Bychkov. directed by Kasper Holten.
(Opening 19-12-15)
©Tristram Kenton 12/15
(3 Raveley Street, LONDON NW5 2HX TEL 0207 267 5550  Mob 07973 617 355)email: tristram@tristramkenton.com

    Happiness is a salty potato – and other life lessons from Russian literature

    Don’t trust a woman who wears too much perfume and know your limits – Viv Groskop on the 10 top tips Chekhov, Tolstoy and others have for us today

March 2017

  • Passion for the classics … a mural of Vladimir Lenin.

    How Lenin’s love of literature shaped the Russian Revolution

    The father of the Soviet Union was also a Latin buff who adored Goethe and liked to compare his enemies to figures in novels

February 2016

  • Notoriously tricky to translate … Alexander Pushkin.

    Nicholas Lezard's choice
    Yevgeny Onegin by Alexander Pushkin review – an expert new translation

    Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: Anthony Briggs’s new version of the classic verse-novel is the first in English not to Anglicise the hero’s name
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