Onegin

Onegin is a ballet created by John Cranko for the Stuttgart Ballet, premiered on 13 April 1965 at Staatstheater Stuttgart. The ballet was based on Alexander Pushkin's 1825-1832 novel Eugene Onegin, to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and arrangements by Kurt-Heinz Stolze. The ballet had since been in the repertoires of The Australian Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theatre and The Royal Ballet. Background and production Cranko first discovered Alexander Pushkin's verse-novel Eugene Onegin when he choreographed the dances for Tchaikovsky's opera of the same name in 1952. He first proposed a ballet based on Pushkin's story to the Royal Opera House board in the 1960s, but it was turned down, and he pursued the idea when he moved to Stuttgart. The Stuttgart Ballet premiered the work in 1965. The Royal Ballet did not present the work until 2001. The choreography for his ballet includes a wide range of styles, including folk, modern, ballroom and acrobatic. The music takes inspiration from the composer he worked with when he was first introduced to the story – Kurt-Heinz Stolze arranged music by Tchaikovsky, which came principally from his piano works rather than his orchestral works, to accompany the dancers. The original principals were Marcia Haydée as Tatiana, Ray Barra as Onegin, Egon Madsen as Lensky and Ana Cardus as Olga. Between 1965 and 1967 Cranko revised Onegin several times. His scenario originally ended with Tatiana kissing her children goodnight, which he decided lessened the drama of her final encounter with Onegin. Cranko also deleted the prologue, in which Onegin was seen at his uncle's deathbed. The standard version of the ballet was first performed by the Stuttgart company in October 1967. Onegin was added to The Australian Ballet's repertoire in 1976, first performed by Marilyn Rowe and John Meehan. Some dancers are coached by Haydée. The National Ballet of Canada first performed Onegin in 1984 in Toronto, Veronica Tennant and Luc Amyot were originally scheduled to star in the National Ballet of Canada premiere, but withdrew due to injuries. Sabina Allemann and Frank Augustyn replaced them. The production was staged by then Stuttgart Ballet principal dancer Reid Anderson. Anderson himself performed in with the National Ballet alongside Karen Kain the following year.