It's time! It's time! Ballet season is finally here! I've been waiting so long, I almost got a little misty, as the chandeliers rose and the lights dimmed before last night's performance of Onegin. I'm such a softie. The house was disappointingly empty, which led to a very quiet feel throughout the ballet. But the hushed atmosphere only enhanced the quiet power of what the dancers were trying to achieve. At least for me.
I saw Onegin last year with Diana Vishneva and Marcelo Gomes - they were fantastic. Passionate, fiery. Last night, I saw my favorite ballerina, Julie Kent, alongside Roberto Bolle, who is becoming one of my favorite danseurs. They were deep, introspective, mournful. It was just as glorious. I love how ballets can have such dramatically different interpretations.
To start, Julie's Tatiana is a quiet girl, a reader, with a softness that's very magnetic. But when she first sees Onegin, she's startled and immediately sees a different life for herself. When they begin to dance together, she has no idea what to do. He's just sort of entertaining himself, to relieve his boredom, but she's beginning to explore her womanhood. The choreography reflects this beautifully. The dream pas de deux was hypnotic - Onegin is behaving as Tatiana sees him, not as he really is. Bolle captures this duality beautifully, and then to see his cruelty when he tears up her letter, it just breaks your heart. 
Roberto Bolle - let's just get it out of the way - is stunningly beautiful. And he uses his beauty to enhance his characterization of Onegin. He's an aristocrat, used to getting his way, and uses his charm to get through any situation. He's also a snob and effete, but his physical charms offset the negative character traits. His dancing is strong and assured throughout, and he partners Julie gorgeously.
Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin are charming as the secondary couple. She's all lightness and bubbly charm, compared to Julie's more reserved beauty, and Simkin is a silky dancer and actor. His partnering of Sarah was a tad rough in their first pas de deux, but he redeemed himself stunningly in the ballroom scene and in his second act solo before the duel. It's just a gorgeous solo, underscored by a mournful violin. Everything comes together wonderfully in the last scene of the second act, from his solo, to his pas de trois with Julie and Sarah, who are trying to stop the duel, to Roberto's remorse at the duel's outcome. 
The third act was wonderful - Julie danced in a more careful, dignified manner, showing how she's aged and settled for her life. Roman Zhurbin played her husband and he was very attentive and affectionate in his dancing with her. You could see a long-term respectful relationship there. But when Onegin comes back, you see how torn she is, deciding between her deep love for him and her respect for her husband and her marriage. The last pas de deux was thrilling - I hardly breathed throughout. Onegin is fighting for her, and she's fighting against herself. At one point in the choreography, Onegin is on the ground, grasping at her skirts, and Julie just rises up, with her back to him, and freefalls onto him, turning over to kiss him, momentarily succumbling. It's beautiful and crystal-clear about how hard she has to fight to reject him. And the final image of Julie standing there, completely bereft and empty, WOW. There was so much expressed and unexpressed emotion - I loved it. Of course, I was predisposed to love it, so there's that... 
My pictures are not great; I have to get back into the curtain-call-photo-sneaking rhythm. At least I remembered my camera. I couldn't believe that I missed the first curtain call by Julie and Roberto, thanks to audience doofuses who couldn't wait one minute to leave the theater. Plus, they were sitting on the right aisle, but chose to walk all the way left across the aisle to exit on the left, thereby blocking my view of the first curtain call. Grrrrr. But the young ballet girls behind me cheered me when they said they were going to find the original Pushkin source material to read becauise they liked the story so much. That's always a good thing. Other house notes: in the bedroom scene in the first act, something happened with some of the percussion instuments and you heard some crashing in the orchestra pit. That was odd. And the second intermission seemed to last overly long - I began to fear that someone got injured and would be replaced for the third act. Thank heavens that didn't happen. I think I enjoyed Onegin as a whole better this year, but maybe that's just because I knew what I was going to enjoy. I'm thrilled that I won tickets to Saturday night's performance and I'll be curious to see yet another interpretation of this very powerfully dramatic ballet. My ABT season is off to a terrific start...
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