My Third Attendance at the Royal Ballet's "Onegin"

https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events/onegin-details

 

Royal Ballet Onegin Royal Ballet and Opera House, 15 Feb 2025, 13:00

Cranko's Onegin is a compelling watch.   its subject is a man who toys with the emotions of two young women and their champion kills a man in a duel without any apparent legal or social consequences and attempts to seduce a married woman in her boudoir whom he had previously humiliated.   An utter rotter who deserves to be horsewhipped and yet his only punishment is to be sent packing.   My sense of justice was outraged.

I had seen the Royal Ballet's production twice before (see Onegin: the most enjoyable performance that I have seen at the House since Sibley and Dowell 21 Feb 2016 and The Royal Ballet's "Onegin" 8 March 2020).  The ballet is performed by many of the world's leading companies and I have published reviews of the Dutch National Ballet's version by Remco van Grevenstein (see Dutch National Ballet's Onegin 11 March 2017) and La Scala's by Helen McDonough (A Tale of Two Onegins 12 Nov 2017).  The aspects of the ballet that had impressed me in the past had been Cranko's choreography, Stolze's score and Rose's designs.  They impressed me again but on this occasion, I also had memories of Matthew Golding and Thiago Soares as Onegin to compare to Matthew Ball who danced the role yesterday.

Ball was a very convincing Onegin.  He is an excellent actor and his looks remind me very much of Alexander Pushkin's image of his creation.  I have learnt a lot about Onegin's character from each of the performances that I have attended but yesterday he came to life to me.  In fact, Ball reminded me of all the Onegins I have met in real life and raised my indignation to the point of anger.  On the train back to Wakefield I posted to Facebook a reflection that cads like Albrecht and Onegin seem to escape the consequences of their wrongdoing.  Sarah Lambert pointed out that Albrecht gets his comeuppance in Dada Masilo's version which I reviewed in A Brace of Giselles while Bo Zhang observed pertinently:

"I don’t see why ballet the artistic form, instead of the dubious ideology of the authors/writers of these stories, has to bear the blame."

Perhaps because he is the most recent Onegin that I have seen, Ball was the most memorable.  But then he must know the ballet like the back of his hand as he danced Lensky when I first saw the workin 2016.

The other leading characters resonated with me too.   Just as Ball had been Lensky 9 years ago Yasmine Naghdi who had been Olga in 2016 became Tatiana yesterday.  I think she was the most memorable Tatiana I have ever seen.   Again because she is a superb dance actor.   Osipova was a great princess and Itziar Mendizabal was a vulnerable and impressionable young woman but Naghdi was impressive both as the young Tatiana and the grown-up one.   Leo Dixon won the audience's hearts as Lensky.  We felt his ire as Onegin flirted with a playful Olga.   In previous reviews, I had overlooked Olga as simply Tataian's empty-headed sister but Olga had to grow up quickly when Onegin picked up Lensky's gauntlet. It is actually quite a substantial role and Anna Rose O’Sullivan who danced Olga explored every aspect of it. I had not previously noted Harris Bell but I shall follow him in future because of his impressive role as Prince Gremin.

I learnt a lot about Pushkin's work yesterday.  Possibly as much as anyone could short of learning Russian and reading the original text.

Last Monday's Romeo and Juliet - a Cinematic as well as a Balletic Triumph

Author Russ London Licence CC BY-SA 3.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

Royal Ballet Romeo and Juliet Cinema 14 Feb 2022 19:30

Last Monday's screening of the Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet was quite different from previous ones and all the better for it.  Gone were the gushing tweets from cinema audiences around the world and the presenters' platitudes.  In its place were interviews with Edward Watson and Leanne Benjamin with Dame Darcey passing on her wisdom and experience to Anna Rose O’Sullivan. Exactly how I want to see one of the greatest ballerinas of my lifetime.

Not only that but there was very clever camera work that caught O'Sullivan's ecstasy in the balcony scene or James Hay's pain after his stabbing by Tybalt. I noticed details in the screening that I had missed before. Consequently, I learned a lot about the ballet on Monday even though I had been watching MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet on screen as well as on stage since the 1960s. 

Although I must have seen them many times I had never really noted Anna Rose O'Sullivan or Marcelino Sambé until now,  but I am a fan of both of them now.  There is something about O'Sullivan that reminded me of Antoinette Sibley.  Sambé is very different from Dowell but I think we may have seen on Monday the start of a partnership between him and O'Sullivan which will be remembered like that of Sibley and Dowell.

There were two other dancers who particularly caught my eye who happen to be my all-time favourite Drosselmeyers.  One was Thomas Whitehead who danced Tybalt with menace earning what appeared to be isolated pantomime villain boos at the reverence as well as cinema vibrating roars. The other was Gary Avis who danced Juliet's well-meaning dad, puzzled and exasperated by his teenage daughter's apparent inability to grasp in Paris a dishy, decent husband and a comfortable future. 

All in the cast danced brilliantly, James Hay as Mercutio, Nicol Edmonds as Paris, Kristen McNally as Lady Capulet, Philip Mosley as Friar Lawrence, Romany Pajdak as the nurse.    There were also Prince Escalus, harlots, mandolin dancers, knights and their ladies and the street folk of renaissance Verona.  All deserve commendation but if I mentioned more names this would look less like a review and more like a telephone directory.

Nevertheless, my review must acknowledge three of the creatives: Laura Morera who staged the show, the conductor Jonathan Lo who first came to my notice at Northern Ballet, and the late Nicholas Georgiadis whose designs remind me of the work of Leon Bakst.  If there was a weakness in the screening it was that the richness of Georgiadis's sets did not always come through. That always seems to be a problem with ballet on film.

Last Monday happened to be my birthday.  It was a delightful day with calls and cards and presents.  But the screening was definitely a high point.  So many thanks for that, Royal Ballet.  

Readers who missed the performance have a second chance on Sunday.