Onegin

Last night I attended the second ballet for my History of European Ballet class. This time we went to see Onegin. It was choreographer by John Cranko, a South African dancer/choreographer who came to Europe in the 1950's. The music was composed by Tchaikovsky who also composed a completely different score for the opera version of Onegin. This ballet is based on the famous poem by Pushkin.

The performance was beautiful. It is the story of two sisters, Olga and Tatiana and two men Lenskij and Onegin. It opens at Tatiana's birthday when the girls and their friends are playing a game. The sit in front of a mirror and according to Russian tradition, if you a see a man in the mirror, he is the man you will fall in love with. Olga sees Lenskij, who later becomes her fiance. Tatiana sees Onegin, the wealthy but arrogant man. Tatiana writes Onegin a love letter but he rejects her and rips the letter up in front of her. Lenskji is offended by this rudeness and challenges Onegin to a duel. Onegin ends up killing Lenskji. 10 years later Onegin sees Tatiana again, now happily married to Price Gremin and realizes that she is the love of his life. He now writes her a love letter and tries to win back Tatiana's love. The ballet ends tragically with Tatiana rejecting Onegin, ripping up his letter, even though it hurts her so deeply to do so.

This ballet is characterized by wonderful pas de deuxs between the lovers. You can't take your eyes off of them. It was the perfect way to spend my Friday night.