Onegin, The Royal Ballet Review 4*

The Royal Ballet principal Francesca Hayward shines in her debut as Tatiana, the compelling heroine of Cranko’s Onegin

John Cranko’s ballet Onegin is so concise and intelligently crafted that every step carries meaning, acquiring nuance with each repetition and development, every encounter fleshes out character, and character drives the action.

Based on Pushkin’s 19th century novel in verse Eugene Onegin, this 1965 ballet focuses on the fateful actions of its antihero protagonist, whose arrogance, recklessness and casual cruelty cause havoc in the lives of others, before he finally finds his comeuppance at the hands of Tatiana, the woman whose young love he spurned.

It brings to the stage a rollercoaster of emotions that cannot fail to engage an audience: turbulent young love versus serene mature love, heartbreak, jealousy, tragedy, loss and belated regret.

Two pairs – Tatiana and Onegin, Olga and Lensky – anchor the action in Acts I and II, with a fifth character, Prince Gremin, the honourable, loving man Tatiana eventually marries, embodying the virtues Onegin lacks in Act III.

Onegin arrives in the country home of shy, bookish, dreamy girl Tatiana and her flighty younger sister Olga, as a guest of Olga’s fiancé Lensky. It’s all so boring for a man who considers himself a city sophisticate; so he amuses himself by toying with Tatiana.

Predictably she falls head over heels in love; predictably, too, he spurns her very publicly; only coming to realise what he’s missed years later, when he finds her as Prince Gremin’s wife. Too late, alas.

A much loved staple of The Royal Ballet repertoire since the turn of the century, the current run of Onegin offers interesting debuts, none more so, perhaps, than Francesca Hayward as Tatiana. Totally convincing as the country teenager of Act I, she conveys the frenzied abandon of first love in the bedroom pas de deux when she dreams Onegin joins her; her heartbreak at being spurned becomes the audience’s heartbreak, too.

In Act III, though, she’s grown into a poised dignified Princess, her love for Gremin (a noble Francisco Serrano) serene and mature; and she fully conveys her inner turmoil in the final scene, when, almost overwhelmed by his return, she finds the courage to deny an abject, repentant Onegin.

César Corrales, also a debutant in the role, is not a natural Onegin, though he does grow into the role. Early in the ballet his acting is not detailed or nuanced enough to convey Onegin’s performative boredom; and his spurning of Tatiana was, I thought, too crude. On the plus side, he is a reliable partner, handling the ballet’s fiendish lifts with total confidence; and his desperate begging in the final scene was convincing.

This cast also offered delightful, effortless dancing from Viola Pantuso as Olga and Giacomo Rovero as Lenksy, both debuting in the roles.

Pantuso’s Olga was sunny, uncomplicated, a little reckless; Rovero danced Lensky’s anguished adage as he sensed imminent death before the duel with Onegin with impressive feeling and control.

The transporting score, a skilful collage of Tchaikovsky pieces assembled by Kurt-Heinz Stoltze, which interestingly does not include the composer’s eponymous opera, was played with tremendous verve by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Wolfgang Heinz.

Onegin is in repertoire at the ROH 22nd January to 25th February and again 29th May to 12th June with a variety of casts. Full into and tickets here

Onegin, The Royal Ballet Review 4*

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