Onegin (ballet)

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Onegin is a ballet in three acts and six scenes by John Cranko . Not only did the choreography come from him, but also the libretto. It is based on the verse novel Eugene Onegin by Alexander Sergejewitsch Pushkin . The music was taken from various works by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky . The first version was premiered on April 13, 1965, the second version on October 27, 1967, both times by the Stuttgart Ballet at the Great House of the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart . Heinz Clauss danced the title role, while Marcia Haydée played the role of his partner . A performance lasts about two hours (with a break between the acts).

people

  • Onegin, a wealthy landowner
  • Madame Larina
  • Their daughters Tatjana and Olga
  • Lensky, a poet
  • Prince Gremin
  • Friends of the sisters and ball goers (Corps de ballet)

action

The ballet is set on a Russian estate around 1820 and ten years later in Saint Petersburg.

prolog

At Onegin's uncle's house

Onegin visits his uncle, who is dying. After the expected event occurs, he becomes the sole heir of the huge estate that his relative left. Onegin appears extremely haughty towards the staff and the country folk by fooling people into being something better.

The prologue only appears in the first version. Today, however, only the second version of the ballet is performed.

first act

First scene: In Madame Larina's garden

The widowed Madame Larina has two daughters who could hardly be more different in nature: there is the serious and dreamy Tatiana; her sister Olga, on the other hand, loves life and is full of temperament. While Tatiana is still unbound, Olga is expecting her fiancé, the enthusiastic poet Lenski, to visit again. He's not coming alone today, but has his new friend Onegin in tow. Tatjana is so taken with him that she instantly falls in love with him. Onegin, however, does not reciprocate her feelings. On the contrary: he lets the whole of society feel his arrogance. When the visitors are asked by the two sisters and their friends to dance with them, only Lenski fulfills this wish. Onegin turns away from the dancers, bored.

Second scene: Tatjana's bedroom

Tatjana's thoughts cannot escape Onegin. Although she only saw him briefly and exchanged only a few words with him, she wrote him a love letter. When she looks in the mirror, she sees Onegin. In a dream scene, the adored appears to her and reciprocates her feelings. He is much more personable than on the day she met him.

Second act

First scene: In Madame Larina's house

Madame Larina is organizing a splendid party in honor of her daughter Tatjana, who has her birthday today. Lenski, Onegin and the influential Prince Gremin were among the numerous guests. Tatjana eagerly waits for the opportunity to have an intimate conversation with Onegin. When she thought the time had come, she asked him if he had received her letter. But Onegin's answer gives her a shock: he takes the letter out of his pocket and tears it up. But that's not all: He turns away from her and flirts intensely with Olga in front of everyone. Her fiancé Lenski is so enraged that he challenges his friend to a duel.

Second scene: an abandoned park

The two sisters go out of their way to prevent Lenski from engaging in a duel with Onegin. Onegin is also ready to reconcile with the poet and apologize. Lensky, however, remains hard; he doesn't want to give up the duel. In the following duel, Onegin wins; Lensky finds death.

Third act

First scene: ballroom

Ten years have passed since the duel. Tatjana has long been married to Prince Gremin, who could be her father in terms of age. Onegin is also invited to the ball that the prince is giving today. On his many journeys he has always sought happiness but never found it. When he sees Tatjana, he realizes that it was a big mistake to spurn her love back then. His hope that Tatjana's feelings for him could be revived is doomed to fail. This time it is she who turns away from him.

Second scene: Tatjana's boudoir

Tatiana has received a letter from Onegin in which he announces that he will visit her this evening. But she doesn't value it at all. In order not to have to face the uninvited guest alone, at least, she asks her husband to stay at home today. The carefree Prince Gremin, however, refuses his wife's request and leaves.

Onegin comes and showered Tatiana with declarations of love. The arm is torn back and forth by her feelings. On the one hand, she is drawn to him, but on the other hand, her mind tells her that Onegin is actually not worth her. This realization eventually wins the upper hand. Now she turns the tables and demonstratively tears up Onegin's letter in front of his eyes. Onegin hurries away, dismayed, Tatiana remains desperate.

music

The common thing about the ballet and Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin is only the literary model by Pushkin and the fact that the composer is called Tchaikovsky in both works. Otherwise you won't find a single melody from the opera in the ballet. The composer Kurt-Heinz Stolze compiled the music from numerous, today largely unknown works by Tchaikovsky. A duet from Romeo and Juliet was used for the great pas de deux in the second scene of the first act ; the middle movement from the symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini can be found in the pas de deux of the third act. Around three quarters of the music comes from Tchaikovsky's piano compositions and was orchestrated by Stolze for the ballet.