Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (1833) is one of Russian literature’s most famous works. This “Novel in Verse” is an intriguing combination of poem and prose. Maybe that’s why Eugene Onegin has lent itself so well to interpretation through ballet and opera. Indeed, when Tchaikovsky was asked in 1877 to create an opera based on the novel, he wasn’t drawn to its plot, which he found cliché, but to its beautiful poetic style, which he translated into the “lyrical scenes” of his 1879 opera. The emotional sincerity of the opera has made it a regularly performed favourite.
Tchaikovsky’s music inspired Eugene Onegin’s most famous ballet adaptation. When John Cranko was choreographing dance pieces for Tchaikovsky’s opera version of the novel in 1952, he first came up with the idea of reworking the story for ballet. Since its premiere in 1965, Cranko’s Onegin has been a consistently popular ballet with audiences and dancers, who are drawn to its complex characterisation and the emotional symbolism of its choreography. (more…)
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