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.

Reacting to Brexit

Like a lot of my compatriots I am very disappointed by last Thursday's vote. The referendum was quite unnecessary. It was a Machiavellian tactic on the part of the Prime Minister that went disastrously wrong. A lot of people have already been hurt by Brexit and a very great many more will suffer in future including some of those who voted "Leave". It is a massive self-inflicted wound which will take years if not decades to heal.

But we are where we are. Our fellow citizens have voted to leave the EU and we have to live with that vote. Some have already said that they regret it. Very many more may do so very soon.  The petition for another referendum stands at over 3 million and the number of signatories is increasing like the meter of a taxicab. Nevertheless, even though the referendum may not be binding in law any attempt by Parliament to ignore or reverse the result in the short term may make a very bad situation even worse.

However, that does not mean that we have to take the defeat lying down. Nothing is irreversible in politics and I think a new European consensus can be built up in time.  It may take many years - possibly decades - but I am confident that we will rejoin the European project one day and when we do we shall be far more committed to it than ever we were between 1973 and the present.

Until that happens we do not have to abandon our internationalist or European ideals. Thursday's vote did not alter geography, repeal the laws of economics, blot out our history, change our language or rewrite our literature. We are and have been since the days of Julius Caesar if not earlier part of a common European culture. We may live on a small island but England is as much part of Europe as any of our continental neighbours.

Even though political and economic links may loosen for a season there is no reason why our cultural and personal links with our fellow European should weaken too. On the contrary we should strengthen them. Tomorrow I fly to Italy to watch some of the most talented young dancers from the Dutch National Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Vienna State Ballet and JAS Arts Ballet perform works by Marius Petipa, Ted Brandsen, Ernst Meisner and the talented young Italian dancer and choreographer Cristiano Principato.  I am  already a Friend of the Dutch National Ballet and an occasional visitor to Amsterdam. I shall be a frequent visitor to that city and also to the other cities in the remaining EU member where I have made friends and connections such as Budapest which I visited two months ago.

This is a very bad time but it is not the end of the world. We must stop moaning about it and start rebuilding now.

Update on the Trecate Gala

Earlier this month I wrote about a gala that Cristiano Primcipato is organizing in Trecate near Novara at 9 pm on 28 June 2016 to raise funds for Casa Alessia to carry out relief work in Burundi (see Principato's Project 7 April 2016).

I have now spotted this splendid poster for the Gala for Alessia which states that Cristiano will be the Artistic Director and that his dancers come not only from the Dutch National Ballet but also La Scala Theatre of Milan, the Jas Art Ballet and the Vienna State Ballet.

I would very much like to see the show and I had sent several emails to the box office to try to get a ticket but I have not yet received an answer.  Now I know why.  Admission is free (Ingresso libero) but you have to call the number at the base of the poster before 24 June to let them know you are coming.  As the object f the exercise is to raise funds for the relief work I am sure that someone will be passing a hat round.

The address of the theatre appears to be 24 Piazza Riccardo Cattaneo which is not far from the railway station. Milan seems to be the nearest airport but it does not seem to be easy to get a train to Trecate.  If I can get some folks from England to join me we could hire a car.