I recognise that situation as well, Ian    The convention can vary from region to region, and generation to generation.  I knew an elderly married couple from a rather stern family background who called each other by the polite form after 30+ years of marriage, with three children.  On the other hand in most of Siberia no-one uses the formal form at all, even to strangers - except, perhaps in shops, and not always then either.  So the only rule is that there are no rules. (A Russian friend was rather taken aback at being addressed as "hinny" by shop-assistants in Newcastle...)


Perhaps not entirely?  Although it gives some Brits the willies, the American "y'all" is a "polite plural" form, even if it may not quite sound remarkably polite   I did a whole show with a Texan tenor once, and he distinguished between the two forms very precisely.  I've always imagined that it slipped into use by immigrants from countries which have the polite plural, who felt uncomfortable with the absence of one in contemporary English?  They just translated what they would have said in their native language as near as they could.  (A lot of American English expressions are like this - "in back of" (meaning behind) is translated word-for-word out of German, "im zuruck des".)

Like the German equivalent, the Russian polite form (Vy) is conventionally capitalised, whereas "ty" isn't.  I have seen some English translations where they've capitalised the "formal version" to "You" in mid-sentence to show which one's been used in the original - this seemed to work quite well?

Opera fans are always given the example in Russian from EVGENY ONEGIN...  when Lensky is wooing Ol'ga in Act One,  he starts out in the first couplet with "ya lublyu Vas, ya lublya Vas, Ol'ga...",  but we hear him cranking-up the ardour by the time he gets around to the recapitulation - it's changed to"ya lublya tebya".   (In fact the entire opera is full of this - Onegin holds Tatyana at bay with a frosty "Vy", and by the time he's changed tack,  it's too late...  and a social faux-pas to address Countess Gremina as "ty").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCY6zNhN_cI

I am still not finishes with You and you. (The first one represents formal and the second is informal).

In Eugine Onegin when  Lensky sings to Olga that he  loves her at first he is using polite You and the music is calm (or not as fast or hurried). He is starting talking to her in a self controlled sort of way.
At the end he gets more enthusiastic and may be excited, more passionate, he changes to intimate you and the musical phrase: "I love you" changes slightly on the word you. To a native speaker it is effective way to represent emotions.

When in the same opera Onegin meets Tatyana in the Park after she wrote to him that she loves him, he keeps it formal You.
And then in High Society in St. Petersburgh it is You of course.

Larins (Tatyana and Olga's familly) are simpler nobiity. Tatyana married bigger (rich) aristocrat.


I think Zar and Zarina (the last zar Nickolas) probably spoke German to each other. I don't think he would call her intimate you in public or in front of people. I can assume they address each other more intimately when alone, but I of course don't know for sure. But he would probably keep it polite and proper in front of people in order not to diminish her. .
 



 

And to complicate matters we have examples like the first scene of Wozzeck, where the Hauptmann speaks to Wozzeck using "Er" throughout.

I now remember that Nabokov hated the opera version of Tchaikovsky's Onegin. I believe this opera was thought of as something "holy" in Russia. But Nabokov had many strange ideas.

That's for sure.

Nabokov was from interesting family.
They were so rich!!!

I think they were monarchist or may be they were for constitutional monarchy.  All I remember is that his father put himself in front of some minister (was it Milukov) when someone tried to kill him.

His father was killed instead of the minister. It was a strange story. I think they were in Berlin at a time.

Nabokov started to write in Russian, but there were not enough readers.
I remember reading his first novels and I loved them. I never could finish Lolita, though I tried several times.

The early stories I read easily. I remember one in particular. It was a story about two lovers who met secretly when the husband of the lady was away. They dreamed about getting married and how nice it would be, but then it all came apart.
I think they understood that they are protected by her husband and have no money worries or something like that. And if the will have difficulties (like money problems or other mundane things) they will not sbe able to sustain their love.

Yes, although what I like less is the way his mad virtuosity with words often overshadows or even replaces what the words are actually saying, a feature also found in the work of his great admirer Martin Amis. (Although in Amis' case that is probably an advantage a lot of the time.)

Exactly.  Martin Amis? Oh well disaster calls