Onegin

Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), Main Stage, London, Great Britain

Scene 3 from the ballet "Onegin", photo 2

Scene 1 from the ballet "Onegin", photo 7

Scene 2 from the ballet "Onegin", photo 8

Scene 4 from the ballet "Onegin", photo 9

Scene 5 from the ballet "Onegin", photo 10

Scene 6 from the ballet "Onegin", photo 11

Scene 7 from the ballet "Onegin", photo 12

Scene 8 from the ballet "Onegin", photo 13

Scene 9 from the ballet "Onegin", photo 14

Scene 10 from the ballet "Onegin", photo 15

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1 PM 7 PM

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US$ 122

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Important Info

Type: Ballet

City: London, Great Britain

Starts at: 13:00

Acts: 3

Intervals: 2

Duration: 2h 30min

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

Cast

Performers

Ballet company: The Royal Ballet

Orchestra: Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Conductor: Wolfgang Heinz

Creators

Composer: Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Choreographer: John Cranko

Poet: Alexander Pushkin

Sets & costumes designer: Jürgen Rose

Arrangement: Kurt-Heinz Stolze

Light: Steen Bjarke

Overview

A bittersweet ballet of first love and regret.A bittersweet ballet of first love and regret. Pushkin’s classic love story becomes a sumptuous ballet with John Cranko’s choreography set to Tchaikovsky’s soaring music.

When the bookish Tatiana meets Eugene Onegin, she is immediately besotted. Enigmatic and refined, he seems like a hero from one of her novels. Onegin rejects her, seeing only a naive country girl.

Will a meeting at a ball many years later offer another chance at love?

BACKGROUND
60 years after its creation, Onegin’s exploration of unrequited affection, impulsive choices and bitter regret still breaks hearts today.

FIRST OPERA, THEN BALLET
John Cranko became acquainted with Alexander Pushkin’s verse-novel Eugene Onegin when he choreographed the dances for Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky’s opera of the same name in 1952. He created his own distinctive version of Pushkin’s work in 1965 for the Stuttgart Ballet. Onegin displays all of Cranko’s genius as a narrative choreographer, featuring finely drawn characters who are transformed by the conflicts they face.

A WIDE-RANGING ROLE
Onegin and Tatiana’s relationship is depicted through intense duets, such as the letter-writing scene, when the youthful Tatiana dances a dream pas de deux with her longed-for lover. The role of Tatiana offers a ballerina many challenges – the development of a bookish country girl into a sophisticated woman at the pinnacle of St Petersburg society requires dramatic sensibility and technical finesse. Cranko’s choreography incorporates an eclectic range of dance forms, including folk, modern, ballroom and acrobatic.

AN UNEXPECTED TCHAIKOVSKY BALLET?
While Tchaikovsky is most famous for his music in Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, his lesser-known works for piano form the basis of Kurt-Heinz Stolze’s soaring arrangements for Onegin. This includes selections from The Seasons, his opera Cherevichki and the symphonic fantasy Francesca da Rimini.

GUIDANCE: Parental guidance recommended

History

Premiere of this production: 13 April 1965, Staatstheater Stuttgart

Onegin is a ballet created by John Cranko for the Stuttgart Ballet in 1965. It was restaged for the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in 2001 and remains in that company's repertoire as of 2015. The ballet is being revived in January 2020.

Synopsis

Act 1

Madame Larina's garden

In the garden, Madame Larina, her daughters Olga and Tatiana, and the nurse are finishing party dresses and discussing Tatiana's upcoming birthday celebrations. They think about the future, and the local girls play an old folk game: whoever looks into the mirror will see her beloved. Lensky, a young poet engaged to Olga, arrives with a friend from Saint Petersburg. He introduces Eugene Onegin, who has come to the country to see if it can offer him any distraction from city life. Tatiana falls in love with the handsome stranger, who seems so different from the country people she knows, while Onegin only sees a naive, romantic girl.

Tatiana's bedroom

That night, Tatiana dreams of Onegin, her first love. She writes him a passionate love letter, which she asks her nurse to deliver.

Act 2

Tatiana's birthday

The local gentry have all arrived to celebrate Tatiana's birthday. Onegin finds the company boring and is struggling to be polite. He is also annoyed by Tatiana's letter, which he thinks is just an outburst of adolescent love. He seeks Tatiana out and tears up her letter, telling her that he cannot love her. Prince Gremin, a distant relative of Tatiana who is in love with her, appears. Madame Larina hopes they will make a good match, but Tatiana hardly notices him as she is so distressed. Onegin decides to provoke Lensky by flirting with Olga, hoping it will relieve his boredom. Olga joins in with the joke, but Lensky takes it seriously and challenges Onegin to a duel.

The duel

Tatiana and Olga try to reason with Lensky but he insists the duel must go ahead. Onegin kills his friend.

Act 3

St Petersburg

Years later, Onegin returns to St. Petersburg after travelling the world. He goes to a ball at the palace of Prince Gremin. Onegin is surprised when he recognises the beautiful Princess Tatiana as the country girl he once turned away. He realises how much he lost through his previous actions.

Tatiana's boudoir

Onegin writes to Tatiana and reveals his love. He asks to see her but she does not wish to see him. She pleads with her husband not to leave her alone that evening. Onegin comes and declares his love for her. Tatiana feels Onegin's change of heart has come too late. And even if she still loves him she has now a new life with Prince Gremin and also after having killed Lensky she would never want Onegin again. She tears up his letter and orders him to leave her forever.

Venue Info

Royal Opera House (Covent Garden) - London
Bow St, Covent Garden

The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in London and Great Britain. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.

The current building is the third theatre on the site following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856. The façade, foyer, and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The main auditorium seats 2,256 people, making it the third largest in London, and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high. The main auditorium is a Grade I listed building.

The Royal Opera, under the direction of Antonio Pappano, is one of the world’s leading opera companies. Based in the iconic Covent Garden theatre, it is renowned both for its outstanding performances of traditional opera and for commissioning new works by today’s leading opera composers, such as Harrison Birtwistle, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Thomas Adès.

The Royal Ballet is one of the world’s greatest ballet companies. Under the directorship of Kevin O’Hare, the Company unites tradition and innovation in world-class performances at our Covent Garden home.

The Company’s extensive repertory embraces 19th-century classics, the singular legacy of works by Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton and Principal Choreographer Kenneth MacMillan and a compelling new canon by Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon.

The Orchestra performs in concerts of their own, including performances at the Royal Opera House with Antonio Pappano. They have also performed at venues worldwide including Symphony Hall (Birmingham), Cadogan Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus and on tour with The Royal Opera.

Members of the Orchestra play an active role in events across the Royal Opera House, including working with the Learning and Participation teams. The Orchestra accompanies performances that are streamed all over the world, including through cinema screenings and broadcasts. They appear on many CDs and DVDs including Pappano’s acclaimed studio recording of Tristan und Isolde with Plácido Domingo and Nina Stemme.

The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House was founded in 1946 when the Royal Opera House reopened after World War II.

Important Info

Type: Ballet

City: London, Great Britain

Starts at: 13:00

Acts: 3

Intervals: 2

Duration: 2h 30min

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