The full company of The Royal Ballet are on stage for the drama and passion of John Cranko’s Onegin. The new Season begins with a full-length ballet that shows to the full the great storytelling skill of its choreographer and has a wealth of magical moments, from intimate solos to grand ensembles. At the heart of the story – taken from Pushkin’s great novel Yyvgeny Onegin – are Tatiana and Onegin himself. While she blooms from provincial young girl to sophisticated St Petersburg aristocrat, he descends from high-handed indifference to overwhelming despair. There is the drama of a duel in which Onegin kills his best friend Lensky, and the tragedy this brings to Lensky’s own love Olga. And there is the ultimate irony of double unrequited love – while Onegin at first spurns Tatiana, it is her rejection of him that will bring down on him the final crushing blow. Stage designs and music taken from Tchaikovsky in a specially created score bring vividly alive the world of imperial Russia to complete a ballet of colour, drama, beauty and passion.
