Friday 21 March 2014

Tchaikovsky's OTHER Onegin

Time for a review of the Onegin which Tchaikovsky didn't actually compose that way.  His opera, based on Pushkin's verse novella, is famous of course.  But then there is the ballet version, created in the 1960s by choreographer John Cranko.  This, too, utilises Tchaikovsky's music, but without (as far as I could tell) dipping into the opera at all!  The arrangement, by Kurt-Heinz Stolze, cunningly weaves together excerpts from many lesser-known works of the Russian master, orchestrating the many piano pieces in a convincingly Tchaikovskian vein.  The story of this ballet follows that of the opera fairly closely, with some simplifying changes.  Stolze has found the most appropriate musical styles to accompany each scene of the unfolding story.


This work has been in the repertoire of the National Ballet of Canada ever since the 1980s, and was remounted 4 years ago with stunning new sets and costumes designed by Santo Loquasto.  This week's performances marked the third go-round of the production's current form.


The stage is concealed at the outset by a scrim curtain with a stylised signature of the name of "Evgeni Onegin" written large across it.  Important transitions will take place between this scrim and another curtain that can be lowered directly behind it.  It's an important device as it allows the music and the action to continue to flow while the major sets are being changed.  When the curtain lifts, we see that the stage right side of the set is defined by a perspective wall with several openings draped by heavy draperies on one side.  At the back appear a scattering of slender birch trees.  These two elements convey at once the two worlds of the story and its characters -- the lush palaces of the royal city of St. Petersburg and the country setting of Madame Larina's home.  Other elements come and go from scene to scene but these two are constant.


As with the opera, the first scene takes a while to establish the situation, but the action begins to move with the first entrance of Onegin, danced by McGee Maddox.  His arrival captures the attention of the dreamy young Tatiana (Xiao Nan Yu) almost at once.  Meanwhile, Tatiana's Olga (Elena Lobsanova) expresses her love for her suitor Lensky (Evan McKie).  It is Lensky who introduces his friend Onegin into Madame Larina's home and thus upsets the orderly life of her family.


Just as the opera contains several memorable arias and dances, this ballet version turns on three main solo/duet passages and two major dances.  In place of the lengthy Letter Scene aria, the first main pas de deux occurs when Tatiana interrupts her letter-writing to look in her full-length mirror.  Onegin appears behind her "reflection" (another dancer performing a very skilled bit of mime) and then enters the room to dance with her.  His passionate embraces have to show the widest contrast from the aloof man we saw in the first scene, and Maddox managed this contrast very well indeed.  More striking still was his reversion to his original character as he tried to force Tatiana to take the letter back (in the next act), and finally tore it up himself.


He became another man altogether again, flirtatious and very much in-your-face as he danced Olga repeatedly away from Lensky in the birthday party dance scene.  The repeated laughter showing in his face was unlike anything else we had seen from him, and very effective.  The dances of the corps de ballet throughout this scene used genuine Slavonic folk-dance steps and movements, many of which appear also in Ronald Hynd's later ballet version of The Merry Widow,


Up to this point, Evan McKie (a Principal Guest Artist visiting from Stuttgart Ballet) seemed rather wasted in the role of Lensky, but then came the second great set piece -- a haunting solo which clearly expresses his introspection and consciousness of mortality.  This occurs before the duel in which Onegin shoots and kills him.  McKie also demonstrated great emotional expression as he continually pushed Olga and Tatiana away from him in the ensuing pas de trois.  This is one of the key differences from the opera version, having the sisters actually present at the duel.  This pas de trois heightens the intensity of the scene perfectly, as does the music.


In the final act, Onegin appears at the ball at the palace of Prince Gremin and is astonished to recognize that the newly-wed Princess Gremin is none other than Tatiana.  Maddox was totally convincing in his repeated moves towards her, and as often repeated turning away.  Plainly here was a man in the grip of some very powerful emotion which he had not previously felt.


The last scene shows a replay-in reverse of the earlier letter tearing.  This time it is Onegin who has written to tell Tatiana he loves her, and it is Tatiana who tears the letter up and orders him -- commands him -- to leave her palace.  I found the earlier, younger Tatiana a tad unconvincing, but Xiao Nan Yu absolutely has the measure of this final act and was every inch the regal lady which the story demands.  This final pas de deux is so powerful that I found I was holding my breath from the sense of total involvement.  In it, John Cranko incorporated many of the rapid lifts and spins, the dragging movements, which are signatures of his style.  The movement plainly tells the story of two people locked in a passionate attraction to each other that cannot, must not be allowed any fulfilment.


After so much of the ballet has been accompanied by less well-known Tchaikovsky, this final scene demands something bigger and Stolze responded with an adaptation of the centre section and conclusion of the tone poem Francesca da Rimini.  This extraordinary musical portrait of the journey through the Inferno from Dante's Divine Comedy proves to be the perfect counterpart to the hellish emotional trap which has now ensnared both Tatiana and Onegin.  Here, too, the National Ballet Orchestra gave the greatest demonstration of their virtuoso abilities during the performance.

No comments:

Post a Comment