ONEGIN

Julie Gardette som Tatjana og Yoel Carreño som Onegin.                 Foto: Erik Berg.

 Ballet in three acts by John Cranko, after Alexander Puschkin

• KOREOGRAFI:John Cranko
• MUSIKK:Peter Tsjajkovskij/Kurt-Heinz Stolze
• SCENOGRAFI and COSTUMES:Elisabeth Dalton
• LIGHTDESIGN:Steen Bjarke
• DISTRIBUTION: The Norwegian Nationalballet/Operaorchestra
• CONDUCTOR:Martin Yates

Historically about Onegin:

John Cranko first had the idea for a ballet based on Alexander Pushkin‘s verse novel when he choreographed dances for Tchaikovky’s opera Eugene Onegin in 1952. He pitched this to the ROH board at Covent Garden but it was rejected. Cranko left London for Stuttgart.

In Stuttgart he received full support from Walter Erich Schäfer – General Manager of the opera and dance companies – to revisit his Onegin project, with the caveat that the opera score should not be used. Instead it fell to Kurt-Heinze Stolze, ballet Kapellmeister, to assemble various little known Tchaikovsky pieces into a ballet score

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What music is concerned, it is not used a beat from Tchaikovsky’s opera of this feature-length Ballet , but a composition of lesser-known Tchaikovsky ‘s works , mainly orchestrated by me. Kurt-Heinze Stolze task as a musical process consisted in covering the dramatic action music , which should be divided into larger wholes. The music should follow the dramaturgical structure of the action while adapting to the dance ‘s unique shape with short and easily coherent pieces of music .

It turned out that some of Tchaikovsky’s piano works were particularly suitable for this purpose because of its simple formal structure , especially those from volumes 51 and 53 of the composer’s complete works releases. Approximately three quarters of the entire ballet music is taken from this collection , such as from The Seasons, opus 37, two arias from an unknown opera, a chancel and a few instrumental works. A duet from fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet were subject to the main theme of 1 scene of pas de deux between Tatiana and Onegin , while the rate in the symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini form the main part of the 3rd scene of pas de deux . The big dance numbers , waltz , mazurka , polonaise etc – are mostly extracted from klaverkomposisjonene .

Cranko developed a libretto closely following the novel and the ballet premiered 13 April 1965 with Marcia Haydée as Tatiana and Ray Barra as Onegin. Onegin is considered Cranko’s definitive masterpiece and remains in the repertory of over 20 ballet companies around the world. At the time of its premiere Onegin was hailed a success with audiences and performers, but there was some controversy with opera purists and other personalities (for instance George Balanchine) who did not approve of the opera score having been discarded.

Between 1965 and 1967 Cranko revised Onegin several times

. He scrapped the original ending of Tatiana kissing her children good night, as this lessened the drama of her last encounter with Onegin. He also removed the prologue where Onegin was seen at his uncle’s deathbed, and had the score re-edited accordingly
. The version we are now familiar with was first performed by Stuttgart Ballet in October 1967.

In 1969, the Stuttgart Ballet made its American debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with John Cranko’s ballet “Onegin”. The ballet, created in Germany four years earlier, was an immediate success. The next day in the New York Times, the renowned theatre critic Clive Barnes wrote: “Cranko’s choreography has two major strengths. First is the authority of his ensemble work; here he shows complete stage mastery. But second, and eventually perhaps more important, is the elegance and expressiveness of his pas de deux.” Discussing the portrayal of the female lead Tatiana, he notes: “As sharp as a razor, as intense as a cruel blue flame, as womanly as a peasant mother, Miss Haydée possesses all the right choreographic verities and dramatic inconsistencies for greatness”.

From the very beginning, Cranko’s ballet lived from its dancers. Marcia Haydée danced the role of Tatiana in the world premiere in Stuttgart in 1965, accompanied by Ray Barra as Onegin, with Egon Madsen as Lensky and Ana Cardus as Olga. Since the revised version was first performed in 1967 with Heinz Clauss and Marcia Haydée in the lead roles, it has been performed over 500 times by the Stuttgart Ballet alone. In 1972, four years after Cranko took over as artistic director in Munich and only a year before his death, the South African choreographer taught his full-length work to the Bavarian State Ballet.

Productions by the Australian Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet followed in 1976, and many other notable companies followed suit. This ever-increasing concentration of productions of Cranko’s Onegin around the world is proof of the piece’s important status within the history of ballet. The work is widely accepted as a classic.

Companies with wide-ranging artistic repertoire that include Petipa classics such as “Giselle,” “La Bayadère” and “La Sylphide” gladly revisit Cranko’s ballet d’action, which highlights the narrative power of dance. Cranko was interested in the alternation between emotion and rationale, which is particularly evident in Onegin and Tatiana. Both figures, whose characters develop on very different time scales, find it impossible to find a common language for their passion.

In Puschkin’s novel, which was first published in 1833, the characters are surrounded by an overwrought society that makes the protagonists seem directionless, undecided and increasingly disillusioned in comparison. At the beginning of the novel, Puschkin appeals directly to the reader: “This pied collection begs your indulgence – it’s been spun from threads both sad and humoristic, themes popular or idealistic, products of carefree hours, of fun, of sleeplessness, faint inspirations, of powers unripe, or on the wane, of reason’s icy intimations, and records of a heart in pain.” Puschkin opens the reader’s perspectives, sketching an image of worldliness in front of which Tatiana and Onegin’s tragic love story appears even more striking.

Puschkin’s “Eugene Onegin” has been called an “encyclopedia of Russian life”. It would not be misplaced to call John Cranko’s “Onegin” an encyclopedia of emotion – since love, particularly when unrequited, knows much about the fragile trembling of a bleeding heart.

Style

The fact that Cranko began his career as a dancer in a highly theatrical company – the Sadler’s Wells Ballet (which later became The Royal Ballet) – played an important part in the development of his style and preference for narrative pieces.

In Onegin we see movement filled with dramatic intention, solos and duets which advance the narrative. In the Act I Pas de Deux unrestrained lifts and swift throws represent the heroine’s wild imagination. This contrasts with movements in Act III which are more suggestive of Tatiana’s hesitation in the face of Onegin’s confessed feelings. Solos are also used to communicate something about the character; Lensky’s dance before the duel conveys melancholy but also determination, whereas the series of throws and lifts in the subsequent scene with Olga and Tatiana hint at their state of despair. Group dances serve a dual purpose; either as entertainment device or as backdrop for scenes between the main characters.

Johan Kobborg as Onegin at Royal Ballet, London. Photo: Dee Conway / ROH ©

One of Cranko’s choreographic traits is “still pose” inserted into the dance, as if to heighten its emotional impact. Though these poses are notballet mime  per se, they express specific emotions or ideas. For instance, Tatiana signaling to Onegin that he must leave (end of the third act) or the arm gestures in the last Pas de Deux. These elements give  to  the interpreters of Cranko choreography – of Onegin in particular – rare opportunities for self-expression and complex character development.

JOHN CRANKO: Born in South Africa in 1927, Cranko made his first ballet in 1946, while studying at Cape Town University Ballet School. That same year he left for London to study at the Sadler’s Wells school, later joining the company. After retiring from dancing at 23, he began choreographing extensively, for Sadler’s Wells (and its later incarnation, The Royal Ballet), Ballet Rambert, Paris Opéra Ballet, and New York City Ballet. In 1961 he became director of Stuttgart Ballet and turned it into the world-renowned company it is today. He died at the young age of 45 while on a transatlantic flight to Stuttgart, but left a pronounced mark on the ballet world as a nuanced storyteller and gifted, musical choreographer. Among his dozens of works are three widely performed full-lengths Romeo and Juliet (1958), The Taming of the Shrew (1969), and Onegin (1965).

 Synopsis

ACT I
Scene 1: Madame Larina’s Garden
Madame Larina, Olga, and the nurse are finishing the party dresses and gossiping about Tatiana’s upcoming birthday festivities. Madame Larina speculates on the future and reminisces about her own lost beauty and youth. Lensky, a young poet engaged to Olga, arrives with a friend from St. Petersburg. He introduces Onegin, who, bored with the city, has come to see if the country can offer him any distraction. Tatiana, full of youthful and romantic fantasies, falls in love with the elegant stranger, so different from the country people she knows. Onegin, on the other hand, sees in Tatiana only a naive country girl who reads too many romantic novels.

Scene 2: Tatiana’s Bedroom
Tatiana, her imagination aflame with impetuous first-love, dreams of Onegin and writes him a passionate love-letter, which she gives to her nurse to deliver.

ACT II
Scene 1: Tatiana’s Birthday
The provincial gentry have come to celebrate Tatiana’s birthday. They gossip about Lensky’s infatuation with Olga and whisper prophecies of a dawning romance between Tatiana and the newcomer. Onegin finds the company boring. Stifling his yawns, he finds it difficult to be civil to them; furthermore he is irritated by Tatiana’s letter which he regards merely as an outburst of adolescent love. In a quiet moment, he seeks out Tatiana and, telling her that he cannot love her, tears up the letter. Tatiana’s distress, instead of awakening pity, merely increases his irritation. Prince Gremin, a distant relation, appears. He is in love with Tatiana and Madame Larina hopes for a brilliant match but Tatiana, troubled with her own heart, hardly notices her kindly, older relation. Onegin, in his boredom, decides to provoke Lensky by flirting with Olga who light-heartedly joins in his teasing. But Lensky takes the matter with passionate seriousness. He challenges Onegin to a duel.

Scene 2: The Duel
Tatiana and Olga try to reason with Lensky but his high romantic ideals are shattered by the betrayal of his friend and the fickleness of his beloved; he insists that the duel take place. Onegin kills his friend and for the first time his cold heart is moved by the horror of his deed. Tatiana realizes that her love was an illusion and that Onegin is self-centered and empty.

ACT II
Scene 1: St. Petersburg
Onegin, having travelled the world for many years in an attempt to escape his own futility, returns to St. Petersburg where he is received at a ball in the palace of Prince Gremin. Gremin has recently married and Onegin is astonished to recognize in the stately and elegant young princess, Tatiana, the uninteresting little country girl whom he once turned away. The enormity of his mistake and loss engulfs him. His life now seems even more aimless and empty.

Scene 2: Tatiana’s Boudoir
Tatiana reads a letter from Onegin, which reveals his love for her. Suddenly he stands before her, impatient to know her answer. Tatiana sorrowfully tells him that although she still feels her passionate girlhood love for him, she is now a woman and she could never find happiness with him or have respect for him. She orders him to leave her forever.