A Tale of Two Onegins

Author Helen McDonough
© 2017 All rights reserved

Helen McDonough

La Scala Ballet Onegin 28 and 29 Sept 2017 La Scala Theatre, Milan 

I travelled to Milan at the end of September to catch 2 performances of Onegin at the Teatro Alla Scala. It is one of my favourite ballets because it has it all – drama, love, tragedy, great music, great choreography. The version being performed by La Scala was the definitive Cranko one, which I do not think can be bettered.

Set to the stunning music of Tchaikovsky, beautifully played by the La Scala Orchestra under the baton of Felix Korobov, the dancers brought the story to life. The two casts I saw were as follows:

Character	28 Sept 2017	29 Sept 2017
Onegin	Roberto Bolle	Gabriele Corrado
Tatiana	Marianela Nunez	Emanuela Montanari
Olga	Alessandra Vassallo	Agnese Di Clemente
Lensky	Timofej Andrijashenko	Claudio Coviello
Gremin	Mick Zeni	Riccardo Massimi

The performance of Nuñez as Tatiana was great. She really owns the role of Tatiana. You could see her joy in playing the innocent girl with a crush (or is it love?) for Onegin....Bolle was greeted with lots of applause as he entered the stage looking very elegant in the all-black attire of Onegin. The roles of Olga and Lensky were well played by Vassallo and Andrijashenko although he wobbled a bit with some of his positions to start with but settled down later. One of my favourite parts of Act 1 is the fabulous running leaps across the stage lead by Olga and Lensky followed by the flying corps de ballet. The corps was wonderful on both nights, I found them pretty precise and stayed well in their formations.

In the bedroom pas de deux, Nuñez was fabulous. Bolle performed well considering he is not as young as he was. He managed all the lifts and jumps. Being seated at quite a distance, and even with opera glasses, it was hard really to get their facial expressions. But the drama of the pas de deux came across well. Contrast this to the following night when the younger Corrado brought added lightness to the lifts and jumps and I think I preferred him as Onegin. Montanari is a more mature ballerina and playing the older Tatiana suited her better than the younger girl of the earlier acts. I was left wondering what Corrado and Nuñez would have been like together!

The second cast benefited from having principal dancer Coviello as Lensky. He was far more confident and assured and his technique was much stronger than that of Andrijashenko. I was really impressed with Coviello. Equally impressive was the delightful Agnese Di Clemente who is very young but danced the role of Olga perfectly. I happened to meet her mother and brother at the stage door after the show. Vassallo also danced Olga very well.

The peasant dances and ballroom scenes were beautifully danced by the corps de ballet on both nights and I do wonder if the second performance I saw had “the edge” because they were not dancing with an Etoile? I must praise the male corps dancers for dancing with great gusto in the Act 1 peasant dances, some showing off their party piece jumps which were pretty spectacular!

The final Act 3 pas de deux between Onegin and Tatiana was really good in both performances. Some of the moves that the dancers have to perform at the end of a 3 act ballet were pretty demanding. Tatiana has to get up off the floor straight en pointe then bend backwards and then there is a move where Tatiana is on the floor (again) and gets pulled up by Onegin into flying splits it must be very hard to do this late on in the ballet so all credit to the dancers.

It was definitely good to see a second performance on a successive night because I started to notice choreography I had not noticed before. For example, Olga and Lensky having an animated argument at the back of the ballroom after Onegin has flirted with Olga much to the dismay of Tatiana.

It made a pleasant change to see a different set and costumes for the ballet although the choreography was Cranko’s. The women in the corps de ballet had lovely sparkly evening gowns for the ballroom scenes. Tatiana wears a lovely deep blue velvet dress for the final pas de deux in Act 3, rather than the usual dull purple gown with white lace collar.

On balance. I think the second performance was my favourite though I thoroughly enjoyed both and they were equally good. As I said earlier, I think it would have been very interesting to see Nuñez with Corrado. Nonetheless, both performances ended with rapturous and seemingly endless applause. There were numerous curtain calls on both nights with the dancers coming back 2, 3 even 4 times, even after the lights had come on.

For the first performance, I was seated on the highest tier in La Scala, the Second Gallery, with a front row seat and a great view of the stage. On the second evening, I had a central box seat (a stool actually) but with a very good view too even though there was a person in front of me. I could only afford the box because it was a Scala Aperta night when tickets are 50% off subsidised by the City of Milan and only go on sale one month before the show.   I’d highly recommend giving it a go for the ambience. Scala Aperta nights do not tend to have étoiles but Scala Aperta are still worthwhile.

I was thrilled to meet all the dancers after the shows at the stage door. For me, that really rounds off the experience. All were very happy to sign autographs and have photos taken by the many adoring fans. It was quite a rugby scrum for Bolle!

"Mesmerizing!"

Standard YouTube Licence


"Mesmerizing!" Not my adjective but that of Leon London, a member of the audience who watched Giovanni Princic and Melissa Chapski dance at the Natalia Kremen Foundation gala on Sunday night and kindly commented on my preview of that event.  Ernst Meisner's Embers is one of my favourite ballets and if you watch the film you will see why. Short ballets can be as great as full-length ones (viz Fokine's Dying Swan per Wikipedia) and I think this masterpiece by one of the best choreographers I know will become a classic too. The dancers in the film are the ones who danced on Sunday night.

Another work that impressed Leon was the British premiere of a duet from La Scala Ballet's Progetto Handel which was performed for the first time in Milan on 20 May 2017. As you can see from La Scala's website this is a full-length work created by Mauro Bigonzetti to some beautiful music by George Frederick Handel. The website contains a detailed description of the ballet if you click on the "Synopsis" tab.

Leon thought that the gala was "superbly produced" with grand imperial showpieces interspersed with contemporary and some brilliant performances by the students of Natalia Kremen Ballet School.  Having seen some pictures that have been posted to Facebook by Graham Watts, I think one of those grand imperial pieces must have been the pas de deux from The Nutcracker danced by Yorkshire's very own Brandon Lawrence and Delia Mathews of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Leon described the ballet as "a gem" but lamented that it was not fully attended with some 75% of the seats sold.  I feared that might happen which is why I did my best to promote the event on Sunday. Had I learned of it sooner I would have been there for a start and so might a lot of my readers. I only found out about it when I did because I follow Giovanni and Melissa on Facebook and Melissa posted a note about the show to her timeline.  If those in charge of the school ever contemplate a similar gala, I invite them to notify me well in advance so that I can drum up some support. Dance education is very dear to my heart.

Possibly because we are lucky enough to have as our capital one of the world's two ᾁ++ Weldstädte (see the table in Weltstadt in Wikipedia) those who live in that city tend to forget that there is culture outside. As I gently reminded dear, dear Cassa yesterday in Ballet Black's Tour 20 June 2017 conurbations like Greater Manchester, the West Midlands. West Yorkshire, Greater Glasgow, the Bristol-Cardiff corridor and Merseyside are as populous and as economically significant as most of the EU's capitals. Some of the institutions of those city regions, such as the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet and the Halle Orchestra, are world class. We travel to London for shows like this one that are worth seeing and causes like Ms Kremen's ballet school that are worth supporting.

Natalia Kremen Ballet Foundation Gala "I Have a Dream"

Giovanni Princic in Ballet 101

Photo Michel Schnater
Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet
All rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

In you are in, or can get to. London this evening, you may wish to see two fine young dancers. Giovanni Princic and Melissa Chapski of the Dutch National Ballet. They are taking part in the Natalia Kremen Ballet Foundation Gala, I Have a Dream at the Cadogan Hall at 19:00 this evening. I am a big fan of Giovanni and Melissa. I know it is short notice but I have only just learned about this gala from Facebook.  Had I known of it sooner I would have contrived to be there or would have arranged for someone to attend and review the show for this blog at the very least.

I googled "Natalia", "Kremen", "Ballet" and "Foundation" and found this page on the NK Ballet School website.  The author, whom I assume to be Ms Kremen, writes:

"NK Foundation is a non-profit organisation that provides financial support to ballet students of exceptional talent but limited means. 

The principal goals of NK Foundation are:

•  to assist children and young peopled with a talent for classical ballet and dance in their technical, artistic and creative development in the UK and abroad;

• to preserve and develop cultural values and traditions of classical ballet, including through providing financial support to students with a potential for excelling in this art form.

Our scholarships and bursaries give students a chance to attend ballet classes as well as to perform in stage productions, participate in examinations, attend numerous ballet events organised by Natalia Kremen Ballet School (NKBS) and cover expenses for ballet uniforms and equipment."

The website lists the trustees one of whom is Ms Kremen who danced with the English National Ballet after several years with the Stanislavsky Ballet in Moscow while another describes herself as the co-founder of BalletCo Forum.

Giovanni and Melissa will appear with two more of my other favourite dancers, Brandon Lawrence from Bradford and Delia Mathews of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Other performers include Kristina Kretova, Marianna Ryzhkina and  Andrei Merkuriev from the Bolshoi and Igor Kolb and Andrei Batalov of the Mariinsky and there will also be artists from the Vienna State Ballet, the Berlin City Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala and  Kyiv Modern Ballet.

Ticket prices range from £15 to £70. If you think £70 is a bit steep for a Sunday night performance in a concert hall, please remember that the object of the exercise is to raise money to enable talented kids of limited means to learn ballet.

I wish Giovanni, Melissa, Brandon, Delia and all the other artists toi-toi and chookas for this evening. I also wish Ms Kremen and her staff and students well with their school and foundation. If anyone who attends tonight's show would like to review it for me, I shall be pleased to consider his or her review for publication.

A Room for Dancing

I was not the only blogger in the Silvio Pellico Theatre at Trecate last week. Monica Bragagnoli who describes herself as "a simple but passionate ballet viewer" has a splendid blog called A Room for Dancing. Her latest article features the Gala for Alessia and contains some lovely pictures of the performance (see Gala per Alessia - Cristiano Principati e Giovanni Danzatori - Teatro Silvio Pellico Trecate 28 June 2016).

Other recent posts include the end of year show of La Scala's ballet and music students (see Accademia del Teatro alla Scala - Scuola de Ballo e Orchestra - Milano 13 June 2016), David Dawson's Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet in Inverness 6 May 2016 and the Vienna State Ballet in Vicenza 10 April 2016.

Monica started the review of Gala Les Etoiles which included the Royal Ballet's Thiago Soares and
Marianela Nuñez on 10 Jan 2010. She is an excellent photographer and her photos are exquisite. I have included the publication in my blog roll.

My Visit to La Scala

The auditorium of La Scala, setting the stage for Swan Lake 28 June 2016

(c) 2016 Gita Mistry: all rights reserved

La Scala Theatre is one of the great opera houses of the world and its ballet company one of the world's finest (see Marinella Guatterini Ballet History). Carlotta Grisi trained at its ballet school as stars of our own times such as Carla Fracci, Alessandra Ferri and Roberto Bolle. I was very impressed by the young dancers in the Dutch National Ballet who had trained there such as Cristiano Principato and Emilie Tassinari. On Tuesday at the Gala for Alessia I saw for the first time, and made the acquaintance of, other young dancers who had trained at La Scala Ballet School who were dancing in Milan and Vienna and they impressed me too (see From Italy with Love 1 July 2016).

My time in Italy was very short so I did not have time to see any performances but I did manage to visit the Theatre Museum at La Scala. I had been there once before in 1974 before the theatre had been renovated. I was impressed then and was even more so now. Before my visit I had planned to explore the cathedral, Brera and the Theatre Museum but there was so much to see that there was barely time for anything else. All we could manage after our tour was the briefest of visits to the magnificent Duomo. Most of the exhibits in the Museum relate to the opera, the composers of the scores for the great operas and the singers who performed at La Scala but there are some real ballet treasures such as a fine portrait of Rudolf Nureyev.

However, the greatest treat was to enter the auditorium and watch the preparation of the stage for Thursday's performance of Swan Lake. This is Ratmansky's staging and is a co-production with Zurich Opera House. The stage is massive and so is the orchestra pit which must make it very difficult for the audience to see the dancers' faces even from the front row of the stalls. A box on the second and third levels might be better but one would be no closer than the front row of the amphitheatre in Covent Garden. For the folk in the gods the stage must seem as remote as the sea off St Anns at low tide.

The Author 29 June 2016

(c) 2015 Gita Mistry:
all rights reserved

That is of course beside the point. One comes to La Scala for history, tradition, excellence and the sense of occasion where all those things are to be found in abundance. You can see my sense of elation from my arabesque in the photo.

Milan is the second city of Italy as Manchester is the second city of the United Kingdom but the contrast between the two was palpable. The Victor Emanuel arcade with its Prada, Gucci and other premium retailers knocked Sr Ann's Square and Police Street into a cocked hat. Instead of a clanking tram there is a fast and frequent underground to most parts of the city. Fast, clean electric trains sped us from and to Trecate some 26 miles away in contrast to the noisy diesel that laboured back to Huddersfield from Manchester airport. Italy has had a glorious history ever since classical times, its art and architecture are everywhere and it is the first port of call for refugees and migrants from Africa yet I saw and heard none of the ugly calls "To Take Control" or "Get our Country Back" which erupted during and continue to fester as a result of out mean spirited and inglorious referendum campaign. In short, the journey back from Italy to post Brexit Britain was not just an 800 mile flight but a lurch back 50 years in time.

Meet Emilie Tassinari of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company

Emilie Tassinari
Photo Robin DePuy

(c) Dutch National Ballet 2014

Reproduced with kind permission of the Dutch 

National Ballet

Born in Bologna. Emilie Tassinari has lived most recently in Finale Emilia in Northern Italy. The town suffered a serious earthquake in May 2012 which destroyed or damaged many beautiful old buildings including the clock tower, castle and cathedral. It also damaged the dance school where she used to study and destroyed the pool where she trained as a champion swimmer.  I am sure I speak for everyone in hoping that the old buildings can be restored to their former glory and that an even better pool and dance school will be built. 

Emilie thanks her mother for her interest in ballet. As she was an only child her mother encouraged her to take up physical activity rather than slump in front of a TV or computer screen.  From an early age she trained in both competitive swimming and classical ballet. In 2009, which was also the year she competed in the National Swimming Championship, she was noticed by the Director of La Scala Ballet Academy who invited her to audition. She was accepted and began her professional training at the Academy.

Friends and colleagues in the National Ballet and Junior Company have inspired Emilie. All her teachers have contributed to her professional and personal development, but she was influenced particularly by Bella Ratchinskaja, Leonid Nikonov and Tatiana Nikonova who strongly believed in her, supported her and helped her throughout her through her studies. She also acknowledges the influence of Giuseppe Carbone, director of numerous companies including the Cullberg Ballet and La Scala. They have all communicated to her the idea that dance is a language conveying emotions and feelings and that the discipline is effective if applied with empathy and adaptability.

Getting into the Junior Company and her development as a dancer through her own hard work are her greatest achievements to date. While she was at the Academy she danced the pas de deux from The Flames of Paris, the First Shade in La Bayadere, and the pas de trois from Paquita in La Scala. In a gala in Italy for Vito Mazzeo, she danced the pas de deux from Coppelia and Ernst Mesiner's Embers. Her main interest lies in the great classical ballets such as La Sylphide, Giselle and La Bayadere  but she has found stimulation in diversifying her experience by experimenting with the choreography of Juanjo Arquez. She also hopes to work with Hans Van Manen and David Dawson.

When asked to name her favourite dancers and choreographers Emilie replied:

"There are a lot of wonderful dancers in the world who I really love and I can’t give only one or two names because for each role I have my favourite dancer. I loved working with the choreographer Patricia Neary for the ballet Serenade, who transmitted his passion to me for Balanchine."

Her immediate ambition is to enter the main company of the Dutch National Ballet and to continue to work hard to reach the top and become the best that she can be. Having only just started her career as a dancer Emilie is not thinking about what she will do afterwards.

If there were more hours in the day Emilie would attend more concerts. She particularly likes Chopin. She would also like to study painting.  However she adds:

"The truth is that the dance takes all my time, all my body, brain and heart. But when I want to relax the muscles and mind, I go back to swimming."

Clearly a very intelligent, disciplined and thoughtful young woman, I wish her every success.