Russian and Chinese artists perform Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin" in Moscow, capital of Russia, Jan. 25, 2010. [Lu Jinbo/Xinhua]

Artists from China and Russia successfully wooed Muscovites on Monday night with a spectacular music feast of the classic Russian opera Eugene Onegin.

The joint performance was the first event celebrating the Year of Chinese Language in Russia in 2010, said Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui.

Artists from China's Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) and Russia's Moscow Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky Conservatory presented the three-act opera by Tchaikovsky with consummate cooperation in screenplay, directing, acting and choreography.

The male protagonists Eugene Onegin and Vladimir Lensky were played by Chinese actors Feng Guodong and Xie Tian, while the female protagonists Tatyana and Olga were played by Russian actresses Yevgenya Dushina and Irina Melyukhina. Their sensational performance of the sad love stories in the 1820s won constant applauses from the audience.

"Although I can't tell the names of the Chinese singers loud and clear, I just fell in love with their amazing voices!" an excited Russian viewer Karina told Xinhua as soon as the first act ended.

The opera has marked the first cooperation between the two conservatories, said Guo Shuzhen, Chinese famed soprano and director of the CCOM opera center, adding that such cooperation will continue in the future.

As the art director of the show, Guo told Xinhua that such interactions between the two countries were conducive not only to the nurturing of young actors and actresses, but also to the mutual understanding between the Chinese and Russian peoples.

Based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin was generally considered the best among the ten operas composed by Tchaikovsky.

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