France John Cranko’s Onegin: Dancers of Paris Opera Ballet, Orchestra of the Paris National Opera / Vello Pähn (conductor). Palais Garnier, Paris, 8.2.2025. (JO’D)
Creatives:
Libretto, Choreography and Direction – John Cranko
Music – Kurt-Heinz Stolze (after Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)
Set design – Jürgen Rose
Lighting design – Steen Bjarke
Cast:
Eugene Onegin – Mathieu Ganio
Tatiana – Ludmila Pagliero
Vladimir Lensky – Marc Moreau
Olga – Léonore Baulac
Madame Larina – Laurène Lévy
Nurse – Sarah Barthez
Prince Gremin – Mathieu Contat
Étoiles, Premières danseuses, Premiers danseurs and the Corps de Ballet of the Paris Opera Ballet
In 1952 the young John Cranko choreographed the dance scenes for a production of Tchaikovsky’s opera, Eugene Onegin, by Sadler’s Wells Opera. Thirteen years later he would create his own full-length version of Pushkin’s eponymous verse-novel on the dancers of the Würtemberg State Theater (now Stuttgart Ballet), of which he was then the artistic director.
The ballet does not use any of the music from the opera. Instead, it weaves together extracts from Tchaikovsky’s other works. ‘It’s not Tchaikovsky,’ I once heard someone exclaim at a performance of the ballet in London. ‘It’s bits of Tchaikovsky put together by somebody else.’ That may be so, but under their conductor, Vello Pähn, the musicians of the Orchestra of the Paris National Opera produce the flow and feeling of a coherent ballet score.
John Cranko’s choreographic style mixes, among other influences, the steps of the danse d’école and the dramatic gestures of the ballet d’action. It is by slapping both hands down on the card table by which he is standing, for example, that Onegin (Mathieu Ganio) lets Tatiana (Ludmila Pagliero) know he rejects the love she offers moving towards him.
The stage floor is not used as something to drag a dancer about on (as in the work of Cranko’s contemporary Kenneth MacMillan), but for the further expressive possibilities it affords. It is lying on grass, reading a book, that Tatiana first appears. When the regretful Onegin pleads for her love at the climax of the ballet, he makes a circle with his arms in the air around her, then, keeping his arms in that position, sinks to the floor to lie at her feet.
Tatiana is the focus of the ballet. Ludmila Pagliero traces her development from girl to woman. The pas de deux in the third act with Prince Gremin (Mathieu Contat), the man Tatiana marries, may not take her to the heights, literally, of the ‘mirror’ pas de deux with Onegin in Act I, but it shows the more intricate bonds of the married state. It may also show the influence of Frederick Ashton, alongside whom Cranko worked in London.
Mathieu Ganio would seem, in his stage persona, to suit the grey-haired, grey-moustached Onegin, the Onegin who wants to love. Just as Marc Moreau suits the role of his friend, Lensky, after becoming jealous and angry at Onegin’s callous flirtation with Tatiana’s sister Olga (his fiancée). Particularly so in the final steps of his pre-duel pas seul. Léonore Baulac captures Olga’s increasingly giddy response to Onegin’s advances as they lead to their tragic outcome.
Cranko’s choreographic language, which stretches the dancers’ bodies to their limits, makes each of these characters vivid. The ballet ends, to swirling, crashing chords from Francesca da Rimini, with Tatiana alone at the front of the stage, open-mouthed in a silent howl of pain. No wonder that, after such a performance, Ludmila Pagliero was not able to smile until the third curtain call. No wonder, too, that at one point she gave her visibly affected partner such a comforting embrace. For Mathieu Ganio will bid farewell to the stage after performing in this Onegin on March 1st.
John O’Dwyer