Onegin (Cranko)

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Onegin is a ballet created by John Cranko for the Stuttgart Ballet, premiering on 13 April 1965 in Stuttgart. It’s based on Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin and uses music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arranged for the ballet by Kurt-Heinz Stolze.

Story and setting
The action takes place in 1820s Russia. In Act 1, Tatiana falls in love with the dashing city stranger Onegin after a chance meeting in Madame Larina’s garden. She writes him a passionate love letter, which her nurse helps deliver. In Act 2, at Tatiana’s birthday celebration, Onegin is bored and rejects her letter. He also teases Tatiana’s sister Olga, which leads to a duel with his friend Lensky, who is killed. In Act 3, many years later in St. Petersburg, Onegin sees Tatiana again and realizes what he lost. He declares his love, but Tatiana, now married to Prince Gremin, refuses him and sends him away.

Choreography, music and style
Cranko’s Onegin blends many dance styles, including folk, modern, ballroom and acrobatic moves. Stolze’s arrangement for Tchaikovsky’s music draws on piano pieces and other works by the composer to accompany the dancing. The ballet has a dramatic, narrative focus with four leading roles: Tatiana, Onegin, Lensky and Olga.

Creation, revisions and productions
Cranko revised Onegin several times between 1965 and 1967, changing the ending (Tatiana’s final kiss scene was shortened) and removing a prologue showing Onegin at his uncle’s deathbed. The standard version was first performed by Stuttgart in 1967.

Performance history
The work soon entered the repertoires of other companies. The Australian Ballet added Onegin in 1976; the National Ballet of Canada staged it in 1984; American Ballet Theatre performed it in 2001; and The Royal Ballet debuted its own production in 2001. The Paris Opera Ballet staged it in 2009, with a notable recognition for its performers at curtain call. As sets and costumes aged, Santo Loquasto redesigned the production for later revivals, with ABT adopting that design from 2012. Other companies that have staged Onegin include Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Berlin State Ballet and La Scala.

Reception and recordings
Critics have given mixed opinions over the years, with early reviews calling the score forgettable and the characters sketchy, while later critics praised the choreography’s storytelling. The music arrangement by Stolze has been noted for shaping the emotional arc of the dance.

In 2017, Stuttgart Ballet released a DVD of Onegin with Alicia Amatriain as Tatiana, Friedemann Vogel as Onegin, David Moore as Lensky and Elisa Badenes as Olga, with Marcia Haydée appearing as the nurse. The company later made the recording available online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.