Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Stuttgart Ballet's 'Onegin'

Got back to town in time to watch one last da:ns festival show- Stuttgart Ballet's 'Onegin', choreographed and directed by John Cranko. There were so many jokes and bad puns from naughty people about 'one gins, two gins' and 'onigiri'. Hahaha. The friends in Bangkok assured me that it was pretty okay. Although Alexander Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin' bored me silly, I bravely decided to watch the ballet since I've not seen any version of it or any classical or contemporary piece danced by the Stuttgart Ballet.

Didn't care who was dancing in which role. Not there to watch the individual dancers, but more of how the company presented the ballet. That evening, the roles were brilliantly expressed by Miriam Kacerova (Tatiana), Alexander Jones (Onegin), Elisa Badenes (Olga), Marijn Rademaker (Lenski), Roland Havlica (Gremin).

Clearly, the plot was of no interest to me, and its romance, lost. Interesting to see the costumes designed by Jürgen Rose, but that wasn't a major point since voluminous skirts and frills and historical accuracy weren't my thing. I focused on the dancing and the music, mainly Tchaikovsky's 'The Season Op.37' played by the Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra. It made for a rather pleasant evening.

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