Royal Ballet Onegin, Winter 2013

[DavidW]

Know what you mean JulieW - I always think its a happy ending, as she stays with the right chap! Though I wouldn't go as far as seeing the opera....

 

As more of a Gremin than an Onegin, I have to agree!

 

Cranko also takes some artistic liberties with the characters compared to Pushkin's original novel (or, at least, that was my interpretation). In the novel Onegin doesn't rip up Tatiana's letter in front of her at the party: instead he meets her in the woods and there's a heartbreaking scene where he explains how he can't love anyone devoutly enough to become their wife but: “If I had wanted life restricted // To living in domestic bliss; … I’d doubtless choose no other bride // Than you to cherish at my side.”  A lot more considerate than ripping up the letter! Also, Tatiana seems to waver less in the final scene in Pushkin's poem (and, in fact, Onegin is the one left alone in the room, rather than Tatiana).

 

I'm intrigued to see what the characters are like in the opera - I'm watching it in the local cinema on the 20th.

[Sim]

Having seen Reilly's wonderful interpretation of Onegin, I am fantasising that the RB will now poach him from Stuttgart.  I think he would also make a great partner for Lauren...I  can imagine them being dangerous and exciting together!

[DavidW]

Having seen Reilly's wonderful interpretation of Onegin, I am fantasising that the RB will now poach him from Stuttgart.  I think he would also make a great partner for Lauren...I  can imagine them being dangerous and exciting together!

I'd be really intrigued to see Lauren's interpretation of Tatiana - I'm always blown away by her acting and depth in dramatic roles. Has she ever danced Tatiana (I presume not) or Olga?

[Bruce Wall]

There is a substantive part of me that hopes that (i) Jason Reilly stays as a permanent principal in Stuttgart as I think the dominance of the dramatic rep obviously suits him; he already gets a multitude of new works being created on him - so crucial at this stage of his career - and he has I understand considerable largess to guest.  Moreover, Stuttgart is the company he went to straight into after graduating from the National Ballet of Canada's excellent school and they have built upon his core talents.  Certainly I hope that he guests with the Royal again ... His performance in Dances at a Gathering was as telling as that in Oneign ... but both were as, I understand, last minute replacements due to injury ... (I have been told that  for this Oneign he had the stately sum of an an hour and a quarter's rehearsal in London.  I say this ONLY to suggest that it was perhaps NOT a predetermined move on the management's part as towards future considerations; an audition as t'were. ... Let's call it a happy accident for all.... On another point -- I was only suggesting that Neumeier in Hamburg MIGHT like to do a ballet with Alina (more resident there than in others) and Mr. Reilly (as BUT a guest ... e.g., I wasn't suggesting he move there either.)  Famously, I understand that Mr. Reilly had wanted to return to the fine company in Canada - to be able to be physically closer to his family - (completely understandable - time not waiting for any man) but (at least as related in the press) chose ultimately to stay with Stuttgart, having won greater largess to guest outside, including (I assume) his own native country.  Having been born there - Canada that is - (although like Tamara Rojo I left VERY early) and having happily returned for my PhD studies I can recognise Mr. Reilly as (what I think of as) an INSTINCTIVELY Canadian dancer - much like, say, Lynn Seymour, Jenny Penny, Martine van Hamel or - using the Stuttgart reference, Paul Chalmer - and most certainly Karen Kain (whose extraordinary rise I witnessed during my graduate studies - and she stayed - even when the offers were rife during the dance boom - and profited in the long run from such I believe).  I say this ONLY in as much as I think of, say, Dowell and Sibley as being INSTINCTIVELY (and great) British dancers - even though I saw Dowell dance AS MUCH with ABT as I ever did with the Royal Ballet.  The essence of this INSTINCT was palpable yesterday in Mr. Reilly's performance.  Again - and on a final point - I applaud the new management of the RB for bringing in guest artists (in enhancement rather than at the expense of their home team) both to inspire and challenge dancers and audiences alike.  Again, I hope after Mr. Acosta chooses to relinquish the 'Principal Guest Artist' status that such funds in difficult times in the UK might be shared amongst the greatest number of current balletic notables for the benefit of ALL.  

Edited February 3, 2013 by Meunier

[Sim]

No, Lauren hasn't danced either role. I think she'd make a wonderful Tatiana. Her  transformation from young, carefree girl in love to tragic heroine as Juliet is so very moving that it makes me weep buckets every time I see it! Am sure her Tatiana would be equally moving, dramatic and convincing.

[Ian Macmillan]

Can I slip in a word or two of very considerable appreciation for last night's new cast?  Debuts all round, I believe - Valeri Hristov as Onegin; Sarah Lamb as Tatiana (rarely is a prettier limb pointed vertically heavenwards); the increasingly promising Yasmine Naghdi as Olga; Dawid Trzensimiech was Lensky; and Tom Whitehead as Gremin.  I thought they carried the narrative convincingly and, whilst noting the adulation being heaped on earlier casts, I rest well satisfied that I was not short-changed on what will be my sole visit during this run.  And I thought the corps was on excellent form too.

 

And Spanner: you're quite correct - the score was put together from a number of Tchaikovsky works by Kurt-Heinz Stolze.

[Anna C]

No, Lauren hasn't danced either role. I think she'd make a wonderful Tatiana. Her  transformation from young, carefree girl in love to tragic heroine as Juliet is so very moving that it makes me weep buckets every time I see it! Am sure her Tatiana would be equally moving, dramatic and convincing.

I agree. There's a moment in - I think - Infra? that has stayed in my mind; it's Lauren standing on stage weeping.

 

Sorry to go OT slightly, but does anyone know if there is a dvd of Lauren in Romeo & Juliet?

[Jane S]

There's one of her and Bonelli being released later this month.

[Anna C]

Ooooh! *claps* :-)

[Sim]

That is already on my Christmas list, but there's no way I'll be waiting until Christmas for it!

[Anna C]

I wonder if it will be out in time for dd's birthday at the end of Feb?

[toursenlair]

Meunier, I'm curious to know what characteristics you consider "instinctively Canadian" in a dancer? And if anyone else would like to weigh in on this, I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts (maybe we should start a new thread for this). Unfortunately we haven't seen Jason again here in Toronto since he decided not to leave Stuttgart, but we have seen another Stuttgart Canadian expatriate (there are about 10 Canadian dancers in the Stuttgart Ballet), Evan McKie, a fair bit. Also worth seeing if you get a chance!

spannerandpony, I'd just like to put in a plug for Prokoviev's Cinderella music. The first time I heard it, I wasn't a fan either, but the more I heard it the more it grew on me and now I love it to bits.

It's true that Stolze cobbled together bits of Tchaikovsky for Onegin, but the more you know about the pieces he chose the more you realize how intelligent his choices were. Just some examples: June from his Seasons for the Lensky Olga "young love" pas de deux versus "October" for Lensky's solo. Francesca da Rimini, about two souls in hell looking back on an adulterous affair, for the final pas de deux. I love the music for Onegin.

[toursenlair]

another point about the Onegin music: the 5/4 "waltz" in the second act when Onegin decides to stir up trouble by flirting with Olga suggests to me musically an intentional disruption of standard 3/4 waltz time, because it's like a waltz that goes 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2-3, instead of steadily going 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3.....

Tchaikovsky apparently loved 5/4 time, he used it also in other places like one of the divertissements in Act III Sleeping Beauty which was originally supposed to represent sapphires, which were traditionally cut with 5 facets. In Nureyev's version that we see here in Toronto this music is used for a solo for a male dancer representing gold now.

[Beryl H]

What an wonderful day at the ROH yesterday, like many others any feelings of disappointment at not seeing Johan Jobborg were immediately swept away at the sight of Jason Reilly, one of the best Onegin's I have seen, in fact he dominated the ballet for me as he should.

 

The evening was even more emotional due to so many debuts and again Valeri Hristov's Onegin was the star performance, he acted the role throughout even when coping with the difficult lifts, a more sympathetic Onegin for sure but much more moving at the end. Sarah Lamb, Yasmine Naghdi and Dawid Trzensimiech danced beautifully too, outstanding debuts I would say, hope some curtain call photos surface somewhere!

 

Whilst I have never read the Pushkin I did watch the film recently with Ralph Fiennes, which was part shot in St. Petersburg including the balcony of Pushkin's house (I visited it once, an amazing experience) and Onegin is never as cruel as in the ballet, Tatiana visits him and he lends her books from his library, he doesn't tear up her letter but keeps it, etc. the film credits said it was based on the Pushkin verse!

 

Looking forward to Thursday's cast, am sure there will be more tears!

 

 

 

[Sim]

I wonder if it will be out in time for dd's birthday at the end of Feb?

Yes! It's being released by Opus Arte on February 25th.

[Angela]

I understand that Mr. Reilly had wanted to return to the fine company in Canada - to be able to be physically closer to his family - (completely understandable - time not waiting for any man) but (at least as related in the press) chose ultimately to stay with Stuttgart, having won greater largess to guest outside, including (I assume) his own native country.  

 

Meunier, I don't think it was the greater largess to guest to made him stay at Stuttgart, because the dancers already have that, think of Friedemann Vogel who is dancing all over the world. As Reilly said 2009 in the German press, it was ultimately the repertory of Stuttgart Ballet that convinced him. He was guesting at NBoC in Sleeping Beauty, and he is not especially fond of the prince roles ("That's SO not me"), so he thought that might be his future in Canada... (By the way, he is a great Carabosse in Marcia Haydée's version of Sleeping Beauty, where Carabosse regularly wins more applaus than the prince). At Stuttgart they also do much more modern ballet, they normally have four or five new works per year, often more, so the dancers get many ballets tailormade to their abilities. And of course they have all those dramatic ballets, not only Cranko and Neumeier, but many other interesting roles. One of Reilly's next roles will be Béjart's Bolero.

Here's a link to an Canadian article about his decision to stay in Germany.

[toursenlair]

Jason Reilly guested in Taming of the Shrew and Romeo with NBOC as well as Sleeping Beauty, and actually we don't have that many "prince" ballets here and do have quite a few dramatic ballets (just clarifying in case balletcoers get the wrong idea about the NBOC rep). We have Neumeier's Seagull and Nijinsky, Onegin as well as the other two Crankos I just mentioned, and the new Ratmansky Romeo of course, a full-length Carmen, etc. But it is true there are many more opportunities to dance with Stuttgart as they just have more performances in a year, and they do a lot of new works.

Edited February 3, 2013 by toursenlair

[Angela]

Sorry, Katherine, I know that and should have mentioned it - maybe Mr. Reilly didn't know it

[toursenlair]

I would agree that princes are "so not me" for Jason! After Sleeping Beauty in Ottawa a bunch of us went out with him to a nearby pub. I think Jonathan Renna was along too. I said to my friends that if anyone wandered past and wondered what these guys did for a living they would probably have guessed "construction worker". "Classical ballet dancer" would have been the last thing anyone would think of.... including the local MP who wandered in to do some gladhanding as an election campaign was on. Jason strung him along in a political discussion, making the MP think that he was a local voter. The politician would never have thought "Visiting ballet star from Germany who has just finished a performance of Sleeping Beauty in the role created by Rudolf Nureyev"! It was very funny.

Not to say that Jason danced the Beauty prince role badly!

Edited February 3, 2013 by toursenlair

[alison]

Enjoyed it today and glad I went - Alina was lovely - but overall it's probably not a ballet I would go to again. I just didn't "feel" it! Thought hard all evening about why and I think the music just didn't move me (music plays a huge party of stirs emotion for me).

...

Maybe I'm just picky - everyone else seems to love it.

 

 

I've had a problem with a couple of the performances so far in that I was very aware that the choreography (it was the mirror pdd) didn't quite fit with the music as well as it could - it felt slightly detached.  I've never registered that before.

 

Know what you mean JulieW - I always think its a happy ending, as she stays with the right chap! Though I wouldn't go as far as seeing the opera....

I would

 

(Sorry, folks - autosaved content seems to drop the credits for the posts).  Edit: oh, okay, they're back again.

 

Cranko also takes some artistic liberties with the characters compared to Pushkin's original novel (or, at least, that was my interpretation).

...

I'm intrigued to see what the characters are like in the opera - I'm watching it in the local cinema on the 20th.

 

Way back in one of the early runs, I wrote a long piece on the old Ballet.co site doing a compare and contrast of the ballet, opera and novel.  Unfortunately, once again I can't find it via Google, or on my hard drive 

 

I agree. There's a moment in - I think - Infra? that has stayed in my mind; it's Lauren standing on stage weeping.

 

Very powerful.  It's never been the same without her.

[Jan McNulty]

 

Katherine said "I think Jonathan Renna was along too."

 

Janet said "I think you are just trying to make me jealous Katherine!"

 

(PS - I'm getting all messed up trying to do partial quotes)

[toursenlair]

partial quotes aren't working for me either.

[Nina G.]

Did anybody watch the 4 debuts of the Lamb/Hristov/Naghdi/Trzensimiech cast last Saturday evening?

[Ian Macmillan]

Nina: Yes, it's all got a bit lost, but see posts 105 and 113, above.  And I repeat - they were good, all four of them.

[Nina G.]

Thank you Ian. Sorry, I didn't spot those posts.

[capybara]

I felt that I wanted to record appreciation for last night's cast, especially Federico's fine Onegin and Yuhui's delightful Olga.

 

This is a ballet which I shall miss a lot once the run is over. It is such a well-constructed piece and has afforded us an array of truly amazing performances. 

 

Roll on Mayerling!

[Chris]

I felt that I wanted to record appreciation for last night's cast, especially Federico's fine Onegin and Yuhui's delightful Olga.

 

This is a ballet which I shall miss a lot once the run is over. It is such a well-constructed piece and has afforded us an array of truly amazing performances. 

 

Roll on Mayerling!

 

I absolutely agree - Frederico Bonelli was brilliant. It wasn't a ballet I knew at all and I was wary about the idea of 'cut and paste' from previous works by Tchaikovsky but it was more coherent than many ballets composed from scratch.

[Bluebird]

I've just read Giannandrea Poesio's review of the Nuñez/Soares/Zucchetti/Hinkis/Hirano Onegin.  

 

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/dance/8839191/from-russia-with-love-3/ (from yesterday's links)

 

A rave review which contains a surprising and careless error.  He clearly did not look properly at his castlist and seems to think that Olga was played by Christina Arestis rather than by Meaghan Grace Hinkis.   

 

Here is a quote from the review:

"The rest of the cast, with a wonderfully flighty Cristina Arestis as Olga, was also good, even though the corps de ballet looked a bit lacklustre at times next to such incandescent stars. I do hope Nuñez’s and Soares’s performance will be filmed, for a record of their Onegin ought to be kept for posterity."

Edited February 8, 2013 by Bluebird

[SLH]

Nunez/Soares last night 7/2 - jaw dropping, magnificent - two artists at the peak of their magical powers - I too would dearly love their performance to be filmed. The whole house must have been weeping at their final scene, such was the power of their interpretations. I can barely wait to see Soares do Mayerling again.

 

[alison]

A rave review which contains a surprising and careless error.  He clearly did not look properly at his castlist and seems to think that Olga was played by Christina Arestis rather than by Meaghan Grace Hinkis.   

 

Yes, I tried to put in a corrective comment, but couldn't.  I do hate all these sites which force you to jump through numerous hoops just to comment (Google, Disqus, Twitter, etc. etc.).  What on earth is wrong with just putting your email address, if it won't be published?

[Beryl H]

This run of Onegin has more than lived up to the expectations I had when the casting was announced, have now seen 10 new dancers in leading roles in 3 casts, all equally memorable, even manged to see 3 different Gremin's each time too, don't think I could take any more emotion this week especially after last night!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Anna C]

Gosh, I hope RB bring Onegin back again soon! *starts saving up*

[MargaretN7]

Yes, a good run of Onegin, I saw every cast (and more than once each). Good from all levels of the company, I'll just give a few comments special for me.  Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares were particularly wonderful, a memory to treasure, Nehemiah Kish showed himself to be a true romantic, and I thought Valeri Hristov's Onegin was the best role I've seen him do.