Darnedshoes

Thanks everybody for the warm welcome! I'm glad my review is of interest ☺️ I studied in the UK for a couple of years and used to go to the ballet more often in those days. Over here it's trickier to do so without hopping on a plane, so I feel especially lucky at getting to finally see Onegin. Thank you for the information, I didn't know that. It's nice in a way that the Cranko stagers can provide that external appraisal of dancers that might otherwise be overlooked by management. For a young first-timer in such a major role I think Miller did a very good job - perhaps we'll see more of him soon Yay, I'm glad for this! That review sounds much more like what I was seeing.

Hello! I'm new here - I hope it's OK to post about performances outside Europe. The only review that I've seen of the National Ballet of Canada's current Onegin run that I've seen was a rather mediocre one by the Globe and Mail (in Links, November) so I thought I'd bring some balance by sharing my own more positive impression. I watched NBoC perform Onegin last Saturday afternoon. It was my first time watching the whole ballet live. I had booked last-minute young person's rush tickets without checking the cast, so I was pleasantly surprised to find Svetlana Lunkina dancing Tatiana. She suited the role perfectly and gave a compelling portrayal both as a romantically naive teenager and a mature noblewoman. My friend who I'd dragged along to watch a ballet for their first time was shocked to learn Lunkina's actual age. Her Onegin was surprisingly a second soloist, Larkin Miller - tall with nice lines and good partnering skills, but who I felt could have added more nuance to his character. He looked suitably arrogant and haughty in the first two acts, and desperate in the third. However, surely Onegin needs something besides a grumpy face to generate an attraction strong enough to be rekindled decades later? I feel there needs to be a sense that a relationship could have been possible in Act 1, but scuppered by Onegin's immaturity, in order for Tatiana to actually feel such internal conflict in Act 3. Projecting chemistry and disinterest at the same time is definitely a bit of a challenge. Maybe because the characterisation of Onegin was unclear, I felt the ballet became ultimately about Tatiana's personal evolution. Siphesihle November (brother of Mthuthuseli) was technically solid as Lenski - stable in his turn-filled solos, partnering Olga (Tirion Law) quite well despite his small stature (making tall Onegin look a real bully in the birthday party scene) and displaying sincere pathos in the pre-duel solo. The corps drew much applause during their supported grand jetes in Act 1. I enjoyed the music, especially the woodwind (I used to play the flute). As a lover of (melo)dramatic ballets, I came away quite happy indeed and have hopefully succeeded in converting my fellow young friend to the joy of the artform By the way, I don't understand the G&M article's criticism that Onegin somehow is a poor programming choice in light of MeToo and the Russia-Ukraine war (or furthermore that it should be 'tweaked' - this is not a thing for neoclassical ballet). First, Onegin shows a completely different type of bad male behaviour; second, this is a ballet created by a South African-British choreographer on a German company about a domestic melodrama...