„Onegin" revisited, SND, Slovenské Národné Divadlo (Slowakian National Theatre), April 23rd, 2025

„Onegin" revisited, SND, Slovenské Národné Divadlo ( Slowakian National Theatre), April 23rd, 2025

It is always good to watch Cranko's „Onegin" again, as it is always a great joy to reflect on it again. This story of unfulfilled love, mixed with deception and even remorse, ends with a very moralistic message, which I would say is something like (for some) „Hell's here" or like the message of an old Portuguese saying, that I would rephrase as „You do it here (meaning „if you sin here"), you'll pay for it here."

John Cranko managed once more to „tell a story", as he did so many other times before (and after), with a clear dramaturgical structure – not like the ones that only exist on the dramaturg's head and are never transported, carried out into the choreography, into „dance language".

It is fascinating to see how he had the unique capacity of, in a few steps, describing a character. Totally.

Think of the lightness, even if very „giocoso" of Lenky's entrance and his temps levé, which describe the character immediately as easy-going, natural, vivacious, temperamental and even superficial. Think of Gremin's „partnering": In just a few lifts, we understand that his relationship with Tatjana is one based on power, not in real „love" in its purest sense. Think of Onegin's pirouettes landing in the fourth position with his right hand elevated to his forehead, showing how „bored" he is – perhaps not only with the countryside but with life itself. The list goes further with such richness of feelings being exposed, dilacerated and hidden.

All this and much, much more create the wonderful work of Art that „Onegin" is, even though Crank took some liberties with Pushkin's original.

The letter that Onegin writes to Tatjana, which she tears, as he did it with hers in the first part of the second act, does not exist in the original.

the airs, elegance and „attitudes" of Mrs Larina and her daughters are much more related to a fine household in St. Petersburg than to their actual state as (just) „country nobility",

the extreme public openness of Onegin's „depression" in the first part of the third act, nearly breaking down while sitting on a chair on the left side of the stage, is something that a person so plagued by vanity would never consent to be seen...

But these are some "liberties" that were taken with the original, and that's it. We can't change them. Since the ballet's première back on April 13th, 1965 (60 years ago), they have become part of the ballet public's „general understanding" of the lyric in Pushkin's verses.

The Company, and I mean the corps de ballet, is in top shape: Clean, precise work!

And, once more, one has to highly praise Nina Poláková's Artistic direction. Also, physical homogeneity is given, a delicate „theme" nowadays in ballet and one to which you are not supposed to give any opinion. The company is beautiful, not only artistically (to which I include good technical preparation) but also physically. And it is „grand" how this company was turned into one of the leading companies in Central Europe. Just think of what a good, professional direction and proper training, and coaching can do.

Mergim Vesejav gave a good, very mature, consistent and extremely concise reading of Gremin. Many dancers misunderstand the character and play him either too „noble" or too hard. He gave us a mixture of (very logical) reactions and feelings, but also a good display of a noble and, most of all, military man. He is responsible for Tatyana's change into a woman "who can also command" in the last part of the third act. Yes, she was this „encapsulated " girl in the first act, this same dreamy girl who wrote a silly letter that could have compromised her whole future and life and destroyed her reputation, turns into a commanding woman, who demands honesty not only from herself but from her surroundings. As I have mentioned before (something that is never discussed in analyses), what is the real nature of their relationship? Power, command, sexual dominance? One thing for sure: Cranko took out in 1967 the finishing scene, which showed Tatjana going to her children's room to look at them

Wisse Scheele's Lensky did not quite start the evening on the right foot. During his entrance in the first part of the first act, his performance was uneven, sometimes uncontrolled, as if the energy flow was only influencing some parts of his body and putting him out of balance. This was quite noticeable on the turnings and especially on the „Jump department" as he always landed out of his axis. Nerves? What is important is that he „recovered" during the performance and gave us a (physically well-suited) Lensky, but also a gamut of emotions; emotions that bring this 17-year-old character to his death. The boy who started the evening with his flirtatious Temps-levés finishes it, performing his last solo before he is shot, on his knees, in the depth of sadness illustrated to the audience on his deep cambrés.

Nozomi Miura as Olga was more than a joy to see. No, not only that: to experience. She involved the audience with her careful (and very thought) ways of projecting her persona to the audience, up to the last row. Her loveliness, lightness and beautifully composed character – it all made SENSE! - was so pinpointedly built that it delighted the audience. She is technically exact. And with „technique" I don't mean turns and jumps, etc., but also the way you use your hands, your head, your neck... these „details" that are so forgotten these days, days in which people tend to think that ballet is doing 32 fouéttes and manéges. Miss Miura gave us a „portrait "of this somehow light-hearted, sometimes superficial girl. I cherish very much when an Artist researches a character, and the character's „whys and wherefores". Chapeau.

Tatum Shoptaugh started the show playing an „encapsulated" Tatyana. Not in the introspective way that the character should be played, but in a way that she had nearly embalmed her fears and sadness, never to go out of it. When she looks at Onegin for the first time and then goes out for a walk with him, it makes no sense. But from the second part of the first act on (It seems that yesterday, nearly all performers just „warmed up" their characters, or with their characters, after one or two acts on stage – except Mergim Veselaj as Gremin) she, or better said „her Tatjana", came to live.

There was some „trouble ahead” during some of the many lifts. One could sense that. Too less rehearsals together?

One thing cannot be left unmentioned: The depth and understanding with which she played her last scene, the one in which she faces the audience after having sent Onegin forever away. It was the best one I have experienced since I saw Iryna Tsymbal in the same role at the Vienna State Opera. Miss Shoptaugh didn't overdo it (there's a tendency to do that). She used the right dose of everything. It was just right. And perfect.

I had not seen Jakob Feyferlik's work since he left the Vienna State Ballet to work on HET (Dutch National Ballet) and at the Bavarian State Ballet (which is his present „home" at the moment) under the direction of Laurence Hilaire. He gave us a technical display, especially on partnering, a „point" which was not his best in his younger years, but there is still work to be done on the dramatic part of this particular character. Onegin is a self-centred person, very „blasé" and the subtleties of this very complex (and let's be honest, unfortunate) character must be given to round up the storytelling and pack it in the cellophane of precision and maturity necessary for this work. Within some more years, Mr Feyferlik, an intelligent dancer, will go into the depths and "the hell" that Onegin created for himself and find the character.

Tchaikovsky's score, which was carefully and meticulously conceived by Stuttgart's conductor, Kurt-Hein Stolz and represents one of the greatest achievements in ballet music (very well protected by copyrights, don't ever make the mistake of publishing it. I did. And had quite a few troubles!) was beautifully conducted by Adam Sedlicky.

Reid Anderson’s supervision is also a factor to be mentioned. All that he knows and understands (and I mean REALLY understands) about Cranko’s work is passing from generation to generation. Smoothly, intelligently. Another reason to honour this production that was made with such care and, shall I say, LOVE!

Very recommendable: A beautiful, very professional evening, which is surely not to be missed. I am particularly glad that the ballet will be kept next Season in the repertoire. This is because the WHOLE Company did a great job.

I am also looking forward to watching other casts. I am very curious about Adrian Szelle's interpretation of Lensky...

P.S. It was nice to meet many dancers from the Vienna State Ballet, who were watching this particular performance. It is good to see dancers trying to expand their horizons, wherever they can, learning and looking for better information and forms of „analysing" works of Art in a more constructive and more consistent way.

P.S. 2 A special note to the beautifully conceived program booklet, which also includes some beautiful work by Marian Furnică, an ex-dancer from the Vienna State Opera, who reinvented himself as an outrageously talented photographer. His work is wonderful.

The booklet also contains special, very well-researched information.

Sensitive and professional.

I wish some other Opera Houses would take this as an example to take their work more seriously.

Ricardo Leitner

a t t i t u d e

Vienna, April 24th, 2025