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Presenter: National Ballet of China

Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts – Opera House
Dates: August 19-22, 2009    19:30
Price:  VIP    400    300    200    120    80 RMB

Programme Introduction

The three-act ballet Onegin was created by the legendary “ballet drama” choreographer, John Cranko, in 1965 based on Pushkin’s novel in verse, Eugene Onegin. Famous contemporary German composer Kurt-Heinz Stolze set it to music by using Tchaikovsky’s well-known piano divertimento The Seasons. The work integrates the merits of symphonic ballet and ballet drama and vividly demonstrates the innocent charm of Tanya and the flippancy and hypocrisy of Onegin. It remains the most exquisite of Cranko’s works since its advent. A neat structure and an innovative choreography which is well mingled with the music make it one of the most moving ballets in the 20th century. Even the laymen who understand little about ballet will fall under its spell, find an affinity with the protagonists and be concerned with their fate. This is exactly what Pushkin seeks by communing with his readers in his literary works. According to some critics, Onegin alone would establish Cranko as an esteemed master.

Cranko’s Onegin has long remained a prized piece in the repertoire of the German-based Stuttgart Ballet. The company’s artistic director Reid Anderson joked in the premiere party of the National Ballet of China: “I am really worried that the National Ballet of China will outperform Stuttgart and include Onegin in their repertoire.”

Synopsis
Act I, Scene 1 – Madame Larina’s Garden:
Madame Larina, Olga, and the nurse are finishing the party dresses and gossiping about Tatiana’s coming birthday festivities. Madame Larina speculates on the future and reminisces about her own lost beauty and youth.

Lensky, a young poet engaged to Olga, arrives with a friend from St. Petersburg. He introduces Onegin, who, bored with the city has come to see if the country can offer him any distraction. Tatiana, full of youthful and romantic fantasies, falls in love with the elegant stranger, so different from the country people she knows. Onegin on the other hand sees in Tatiana only a naive country girl who reads too many romantic novels.

Act I, Scene 2 – Tatiana’s Bedroom:
Tatiana, her imagination aflame with impetuous first-love, dreams of Onegin and writes him a passionate love-letter which she gives to her nurse to deliver.

Act II, Scene 1 -Tatiana’s Birthday:
The provincial gentry have come to celebrate Tatiana’s birthday. They gossip about Lensky’s infatuation with Olga and whisper prophecies of a dawning romance between Tatiana and the newcomer. Onegin finds the company boring. Stifling his yawns, he finds it difficult to be civil to them: furthermore, he is irritated by Tatiana’s letter which he regards merely as an outburst of adolescent love. In a quiet moment, he seeks out Tatiana, and telling her that he cannot love her, tears up her letter. Tatiana’s distress, instead of awakening pity, merely increases his irritation.

Prince Gremin, a distant relative appears. He is in love with Tatiana, and Madame Larina hopes for a brilliant match, but Tatiana, troubled with own heart, hardly notices her kindly and elderly relation. Onegin, in his boredom, decides to provoke Lensky by flirting with Olga who light-headedly joins in his teasing. But Lensky takes the matter with passionate seriousness. He challenges Onegin to a duel.

Act II, Scene 2 – The Duel:
Tatiana and Olga try to reason with Lensky, but his high romantic ideals are shattered by the betrayal of his friend and the fickleness of his beloved; he insists that the duel take place. Onegin kills his friend and for the first time his cold heart is moved by the horror of his deed. Tatiana realizes that her love was an illusion, and that Onegin is self-centered and empty.

Act III, Scene 1 – St. Petersburg:
Onegin, having traveled the world for many years in an attempt to escape from his own futility, returns to St. Petersburg where he is received at a ball in the palace of Prince Gremin. Gremin has recently married, and Onegin is astonished to recognize in the stately and elegant young princess, Tatiana, the
uninteresting little country girl whom he once turned away. The enormity of his mistake and loss engulfs him. His life now seems even more aimless and empty.

Act III, Scene 2- Tatiana’s Boudoir:
Tatiana reads a letter from Onegin which reveals his love. Suddenly he stands before her impatient to know her answer. Tatiana sorrowfully tells him that although she still feels her passionate love of girlhood for him, she is now a woman, and that she could never find happiness with him or respect for him. She orders him to leave her forever.

National Ballet of China
Founded on 31 December 1959, the National Ballet of China is China’s only national ballet company.  Its dancers and musicians are all graduates from professional dance academies and music conservatories across China. Since the day it was founded, the company has received continuous support from the Chinese government. In its early days, Russian ballet master Pyotr Gusev and other Russian teachers helped lay a solid foundation for the company using their experience in the Russian School of classical ballet. For more than 40 years, the National Ballet of China has introduced many outstanding classical ballets and contemporary ballet works to the Chinese audience. At the same time, it has attached great importance to creating a unique fusion between western classical ballet and Chinese culture. They have achieved this by creating their own ballets, which represents the varied characteristics of the Chinese nation. Today, the company has a broad repertoire and has successfully trained many generations of outstanding artists. Through international cultural exchange, The National Ballet of China has attracted the attention of the international ballet world.

NBC 50th Anniversary Series
Ballet “Sylvia” on December 01 – 02, 2009  19:30
Ballet “Peony Pavilion” on December 08 – 09, 2009    19:30
Ballet “Swan Lake” on December 04 – 05, 2009  19:30

(Source: ebeijing.gov.cn)