Royal Ballet Onegin, Winter 2013

[loveclassics]

I'll have to check but I'm pretty certain that Zoe Anderson's book on the RB refers to an occasion when the Balanchine Trust was so serously bent out of shape at a change of casting for Apollo that they threatened to take away the company's licence to stage it.  Reid Anderson may be fussy about casting but he isn't the only one.  Ultimately I assume that Trustees for eminent choreographers feel it is their duty to fulfill the choreographer's wishes (but are they the only ones who know what they were?)

[DavidW]

Sorry to randomly revive an old thread, but I thought this was worth sharing for anyone who has seen Cranko's Onegin - Stephen Fry is offering a free download of him reading the Pushkin novel (translated of course!). Well worth a listen! http://fryreadsonegin.com/

[jmhopton]

As the Onegin thread has been revived I've often wondered why Ed Watson has never been chosen to dance in the role. His acting/dancing credentials are impeccable and if anyone can conquer Prince Rudolf so spectacularly surely he should be cast for Onegin. I've always wondered if it was hair colouring but now it seems there have been other fair Onegins so why not Ed?

[Tony Newcombe]

If the Royal had held the rights, I am sure he would have.

[alison]

Funny you should mention that, Joan, because last night I was skimming through the old Ballet.co threads for the previous two runs of Mayerling, and someone on there had said how they'd really like to see Watson and Galeazzi in Onegin - I remember it because I thought "Oh, well that's one we're definitely not going to see now, then".

 

Personally, and I know I've said this before (and probably on this thread), but I've given up wondering/fretting about the Estate's casting of Onegin - they've passed over so many dancers who I thought would be excellent in a role, and sometimes picked dancers who I didn't think were particularly good in it, or at least wondered "Why pick A when you could have had B?", that I've stopped bothering (and it's started to affect the number of performances I go to, too).  The upshot is that while I've seen excellent individual performances I've still never seen a 4-(or 5-?) person ensemble at the RB to match the one I saw first time around at ENB.

[Aruna S]

Sorry to randomly revive an old thread, but I thought this was worth sharing for anyone who has seen Cranko's Onegin - Stephen Fry is offering a free download of him reading the Pushkin novel (translated of course!). Well worth a listen! http://fryreadsonegin.com/

Many, many thanks, DavidW. I finally got around to listening to this and it was an excellent version.