Onegin (Cranko)

Onegin
Choreographer	John Cranko
Music	Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky arrangements by Kurt-Heinz Stolze
Based on	Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
Premiere	13 April 1965 Staatsoper, Stuttgart
Original ballet company	Stuttgart Ballet
Setting	19th-century Russia

Onegin is a ballet created by John Cranko for the Stuttgart Ballet in 1965. It was recreated for the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in 2001 and remains in that company's repertoire as at 2015.

Background

Cranko first discovered Alexander Pushkin's verse-novel Eugene Onegin when he choreographed the dances for Tchaikovsky's opera of the same name in 1952. He first proposed a ballet based on Pushkin's story to the Royal Opera House board in the 1960s, but it was turned down, and he pursued the idea when he moved to Stuttgart. The Royal Ballet did not present the work until 2001. The choreography for his ballet includes a wide range of styles, including folk, modern, ballroom and acrobatic. The music takes inspiration from the composer he worked with when he was first introduced to the story – Kurt-Heinz Stolze arranged music by Tchaikovsky, which came principally from his piano works rather than his orchestral works, to accompany the dancers. The original principals were Marcia Haydée as Tatiana, Ray Barra as Onegin, Egon Madsen as Lensky and Ana Cardus as Olga.

Between 1965 and 1967 Cranko revised Onegin several times. His scenario originally ended with Tatiana kissing her children goodnight, which he decided lessened the drama of her final encounter with Onegin. Cranko also deleted the prologue, in which Onegin was seen at his uncle's deathbed. The standard version of the ballet was first performed by the Stuttgart company in October 1967.

Synopsis

Act 1

Madame Larina's garden

In the garden, Madame Larina, Olga and the nurse are finishing party dresses and discussing Tatiana's upcoming birthday celebrations. They think about the future, and the local girls play an old folk game: whoever looks into the mirror will see her beloved. Lensky, a young poet engaged to Olga, arrives with a friend from St. Petersburg. He introduces Eugene Onegin, who has come to the country to see if it can offer him any distraction from city life. Tatiana falls in love with the handsome stranger, who seems so different to the country people she knows, while Onegin only sees a naive, romantic girl.

Tatiana's bedroom

That night, Tatiana dreams of Onegin, her first love. She writes him a passionate love letter, which she asks her nurse to deliver.

Act 2

Tatiana's birthday

The local gentry have all arrived to celebrate Tatiana's birthday. Onegin finds the company boring and is struggling to be polite. He is also annoyed by Tatiana's letter, which he thinks is just an outburst of adolescent love. He seeks Tatiana out and tears up her letter, telling her that he cannot love her. Prince Gremin, a distant relative of Tatiana who is in love with her, appears. Madame Larina hopes they will make a good match, but Tatiana hardly notices him as she is so distressed. Onegin decides to provoke Lensky by flirting with Olga, hoping it will relieve his boredom. Olga joins in with the joke, but Lensky takes it seriously and challenges Onegin to a duel.

The duel

Tatiana and Olga try to reason with Lensky but he insists the duel must go ahead. Onegin kills his friend.

Act 3

St Petersburg

Years later, Onegin returns to St. Petersburg after travelling the world. He goes to a ball at the palace of Prince Gremin. Onegin is surprised when he recognises the beautiful Princess Tatiana as the country girl he once turned away. He realises how much he lost through his previous actions.

Tatiana's boudoir

Onegin writes to Tatiana and reveals his love. He asks to see her but she does not wish to see him. She pleads with her husband not to leave her alone that evening. Onegin comes and declares his love for her. Tatiana feels Onegin's change of heart has come too late. She tears up his letter and orders him to leave her forever.

Reception

After the Stuttgart premiere the ballet critic of The Times rated the piece enjoyable but not wholly successful. He found the score unmemorable and the characters sketchy: "Solitary introverts are difficult to depict in dancing". By 1974, when the Stuttgart company presented the piece at Covent Garden shortly after Cranko's death, the critic John Percival reassessed the work much more favourably, praising both the music and the narrative expertise of the choreography. The work has continued to divide critical opinion. In 2004 The Independent called it "a weak piece [missing] the story's depth, its psychological understanding". Three years later the critic in The Sunday Times found that the work's "acutely expressive choreography ... never fails to enthral... Cranko's handling of the Pushkin story as dance is masterly." Other comments have included "compelling but dramatically flawed", "magnificent ... a neck-pricking five-star triumph, "stodgily operatic" and "a sad, beautiful ballet, a true romance with four finely drawn leading characters and a grown-up poignance rarely found."