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Eugene Onegin - ABT Spring 2012


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I'm still in awe of tonight's performance. Vishneva and Gomes were passionate, explosive and electrifying together. They danced with abandon. I had forgotten how tricky the partnering in this ballet is. Gomes handled all the difficult lifts superbly, and Vishneva's fully stretched out positions were heightened the drama. Vishneva was heartbreaking in the final scene. She looked completely drained by the curtain call. She also did a great job in acting out the change in her character from naive romantic girl to mature woman. I found it a little hard to believe Marcelo as the mean snob in Act I. However, he was totally in his element in the final romantic, frantic scene where he is pleading with Vishneva.

Jared Matthews was excellent as Lensky. He did an especially wonderful job in his solo in Act II. Osipova was also excellent in playing the coquette.

The sets and costumes were quite lovely, especially the beautifuly dresses in Act III. Based on past history, I'm guessing that Vishneva and Gomes will be even better on Thursday than tonight. Get your tickets now or live to regret it.

The audience cheered the wonderful cast at the curtain call. I'm finding it hard to picture how any of the remaining 3 casts could top this, but we'll see.

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oh my god, Diana and Marcelo were s e n s a t i o n al !!!!

This partnership is really making history.

Both pdd were so, so beautiful, I still have chills whenever i think about their dancing tonight !!!!

I cant even describe their dancing with words.

The entire cast was wonderful and the production is gorgeous.

Diana was so moved at the end, that she was pretty much crying in the curtain calls, especially in a moment is which Marcelo hugged and kissed her.

I am sure the other casts will do well, but this was really something else.

I am shocked that it took abt almost 10 yrs to bring back such an amazing ballet !!

Based on the quality of this show, next thursday people should really be pulling their hair at the doors of the met to get a ticket to see this !!!

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Last night's perf was indeed terrific, and I agree with pretty much everything of what you've all had to say, but about those lifts... I don't want to sound cranky, because the dancing was truly bravura, but didn't you feel the multitude of whiplash lifts--over and over again, more and more and more--got a little tiresome? I'm usually of the "more is more" school, but last night I would have wanted the choreography to be a teeny bit more judicious, and not pile it on. What I liked most about each of the PdDs was how sharply they delineated character and relationship, in particular the first PdD for Onegin and Tatiana. His wafting off into bits of a solo variation, his attention and interest in Tatiana clearly wavering if not minimal, it struck me as the dance equivalent of someone who in conversation is so self-absorbed they launch into a monologue and talk at the other person rather than with them. Marcelo is such a warm personality on stage that I was surprised how well he could play "aloof" and "dismissive." (In act 2, "abusive," too.) David might be even better at this, given his pale looks and his height (literally, "hauteur"), but I confess Marcelo did convince me. This was, for me, the best I've seen Jared dance--he was perfectly cast. In the future, though, I'd be curious to see Eric Tamm dance Lensky; I think the part would be right for him, too. And as for Osipova--well! Superb, in fact, so superb that for the first time I wondered in the last act: Where's Olga? What happened to Olga after the duel? (A bit like in Norma; I always wonder what became of Adalgisa...) I will be very curious to read other reports of how Bolle and Kent perform, because when they danced the letter scene at the opening night gala, it was a rather pallid affair--merely a sketch, it seemed, of what it might turn out to be. So: Paging other commentators!!!

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I looked at Vishneva's facebook page. She posted a photo of the curtain call. She also thanked ABT for this role, stating that she has been waiting to dance this role a long time. I thought that was very classy. I thank ABT, too, for bringing us this stellar cast. I agree that this was the best I've ever role I've ever seen Jared dance. I loved all the lifts, and I didn't think it was too much of a good thing. Also agree that the Bolle/Kent letter scene on opening night was half-baked.

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I will be very curious to read other reports of how Bolle and Kent perform, because when they danced the letter scene at the opening night gala, it was a rather pallid affair--merely a sketch, it seemed, of what it might turn out to be. So: Paging other commentators!!!

Bolle Onegin was a pale thing also in La Scala: the work of a very diligent schoolboy, but nothing more. A very dutiful work: steps and basic idea of the character were there, but the lesson was well studied but not elaborated and absorbed by a real artist. He was paired by an elegant but bland and quite insipid Maria Eichwald, guesting from Stuttgart: be sure that Marcia Haydée was another thing!

Very different approach by Massimo Murru: I really dislike his Onegin, very impolite and aggressive, as the Onegin of Tatiana’s nightmare spread all over the ballet. Nevertheless it was a personal reading (maybe just too much, to my taste), as I expect from an artist, and coherent, unfortunately not well matched by Emanuela Montanari excellent but traditional Tatiana: the show was unbalanced because the two were telling a different story.

Having seen Kent and Bolle Dame aux Camelias I don’t think there is the same risk, but I really really hope in an improvement: that show was so bad that having seen it as the first one I’d have never come back to see that ballet again (actually one of my favourite!!!).

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I'm still in awe of tonight's performance. Vishneva and Gomes were passionate, explosive and electrifying together. They danced with abandon. I had forgotten how tricky the partnering in this ballet is. Gomes handled all the difficult lifts superbly, and Vishneva's fully stretched out positions were heightened the drama. Vishneva was heartbreaking in the final scene. She looked completely drained by the curtain call. She also did a great job in acting out the change in her character from naive romantic girl to mature woman. I found it a little hard to believe Marcelo as the mean snob in Act I. However, he was totally in his element in the final romantic, frantic scene where he is pleading with Vishneva.

Jared Matthews was excellent as Lensky. He did an especially wonderful job in his solo in Act II. Osipova was also excellent in playing the coquette.

The sets and costumes were quite lovely, especially the beautifuly dresses in Act III. Based on past history, I'm guessing that Vishneva and Gomes will be even better on Thursday than tonight. Get your tickets now or live to regret it.

The audience cheered the wonderful cast at the curtain call. I'm finding it hard to picture how any of the remaining 3 casts could top this, but we'll see.

Thanks for the review, abatt. Per your advice, I bought my tickets for this cast's performance on Thursday. yahoo.gif

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I agree with all the plaudits for the Vishneva/Gomes/Osipova/Matthews cast. Diana and Marcelo have this incredibly intense chemistry that is palpable. Vishneva is perfect at conveying the passion behind the shy country girl in the first two acts, and the conflicted, mature woman of the last act. Marcelo is so handsome and intense, you can imagine girls losing their heads over him. Together they really fill out some of the weakness of the choreography (the swoony lifts get very repetitive).

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Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, MakarovaFan! I'm going back Thursday too. Can't wait!

I'm right there with you abatt! Super excited about tomorrow night's show!!

In fact, it seems that you and I were both so thrilled by Vishneva & Gomes that we both started threads! Perhaps one of the moderators/administrators could combine the threads...? sweatingbullets.gif

Tonight's performance for Kent & Bolle was not nearly as satisfying for me. In my opinion, the big pas de deux did not have the same power or chemistry as they did on Monday.

However, I did enjoy seeing Maria Riccetto's Olga. Blaine Hoven was replaced by Jared Matthews as Lensky, and I felt like he and Maria had much more rapport than Jared and Osipova. Osipova's Olga was a little too "look at me!!" for my taste. Although her big smile and flashy ways did feel appropriate for Olga's character, it then became obvious when she fell out of character--when the supported turns got tricky and she had to think about it. Maria was still vivacious but not so histrionic, which I appreciated.

I liked Jared's Lensky in Act II, but his Act I solo still seems slightly rough--or perhaps it's just the choreography that's awkward. I don't quite feel like he knows what emotions he's supposed to be bringing to the steps.

Bolle's Onegin was more restrained than Marcelo's--he displayed something like an aristocrat's cold disdain for the lower classes, rather then Marcelo's palpable disgust with conventional society. Bolle did a fine job of partnering Julie, and the Act I p.d.d. seemed to be much smoother than when they performed it at the gala.

In the Act III p.d.d., there is a move where Tatiana is lying on the floor on her back, and Onegin pulls her up into a big split leap. Diana and Marcelo did this twice, but Julie and Roberto only did it once--the second time she jumped from a standing position. Julie and Roberto also kissed in the middle--which I don't think Marcelo and Diana did, but I'm not sure. Julie's Tatiana kind of gave into Onegin, and then thought better of it, and sent Onegin away, while Diana's Tatiana seemed to be caught in this epic battle between her heart--which ardently desired Onegin--and her mind--which told her to resist. I felt like she was desperately fighting not to give into Onegin's advances--especially near the end where he lowers her slowly to the floor and she arched back as far as she could in order to avoid his embrace. She tries to send him away before her last remaining shred of willpower gives out.

In Act I, Julie's Tatiana felt a little bit like her Giselle--a little shy and introverted, perhaps, but not really melancholic like Diana's. She still smiles, she is still winsome. One scene that she played differently from Diana was after she writes the letter to Onegin and her nurse comes in to tell her to go to sleep. She keeps trying to sit up when her nurse isn't looking, and then lies down when her nurse turns around. Julie played it like hide-and-go-seek, like a cute exchange between a nanny and her still-childish charge, and it was endearing. In contrast, when Diana did it, it was clear that she kept sitting up to look because she was worried her nurse would find the all-important letter on her desk. I thought that was an interesting difference in interpretations.

After tonight's performance, I think I agree with abatt's assessment that tomorrow's cast is the one to see! Get your ticket while you still can!

ETA I forgot to mention that one unexpected thrill from tonight's performance was seeing Gillian Murphy, Stella Abrera, and Hee Seo sitting together in the audience, and Xiomara Reyes a few rows behind them!

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