Ballet Notes Onegin March 19 – 23, 2014 Sonia Rodriguez and Piotr Stanczyk. Photo by Bruce Zinger. Orchestra Violin 1 Oboes Jeremy Mastrangelo, Mark Rogers, Principal Guest Concertmaster Karen Rotenberg Lynn Kuo, Assistant Lesley Young, English Horn Concertmaster Clarinets James Aylesworth Max Christie, Principal Jennie Baccante Colleen Cook+ Bethany Bergman+ Gary Kidd, Bass Clarinet Sheldon Grabke Emily Marlow * Celia Franca, C.C., Founder Nancy Kershaw Sonia Klimasko-Leheniuk Bassoons George Crum, Music Director Emeritus Yakov Lerner Stephen Mosher, Principal Karen Kain, C.C. Barry Hughson Jayne Maddison Jerry Robinson Artistic Director Executive Director Wendy Rogers Elizabeth Gowen, David Briskin Rex Harrington, O.C. Paul Zevenhuizen Contra-Bassoon Music Director and Artist-in-Residence Violin 2 Horns Principal Conductor Dominique Laplante, Gary Pattison, Principal Magdalena Popa Lindsay Fischer Principal Second Violin Vincent Barbee* Principal Artistic Coach Artistic Director, Aaron Schwebel, Derek Conrod YOU dance / Ballet Master Assistant Principal Diane Doig+ + Peter Ottmann Mandy-Jayne Xiao Grabke Christine Passmore Senior Ballet Master Richardson Hiroko Kagawa+ Scott Wevers Senior Ballet Mistress Csaba Koczo Trumpets Rene London+ Aleksandar Antonijevic, Guillaume Côté, Richard Sandals, Principal Matthew Golding+, Greta Hodgkinson, Evan McKie*, Ron Mah Mark Dharmaratnam Svetlana Lunkina*, Heather Ogden, Sonia Rodriguez, Aya Miyagawa Robert Weymouth Piotr Stanczyk, Jillian Vanstone, Xiao Nan Yu Filip Tomov Trombones Kevin D. Bowles, Lorna Geddes, Joanna Zabrowarna David Archer, Principal Alejandra Perez-Gomez, Rebekah Rimsay, Violas Tomas Schramek, Hazaros Surmeyan Robert Ferguson Angela Rudden, Principal Dave Pell, Bass Trombone Naoya Ebe, Keiichi Hirano, Tanya Howard, Josh Greenlaw Stephanie Hutchison, Etienne Lavigne, Assistant Principal * Tuba Patrick Lavoie, Elena Lobsanova, McGee Maddox, Sasha Johnson, Principal Stacey Shiori Minagawa, Tina Pereira, Beverley Spotton, Acting Jonathan Renna, Robert Stephen Assistant Principal Harp Carolyn Blackwell+ Skylar Campbell, Jordana Daumec, + Lucie Parent, Principal Alexandra MacDonald, Chelsy Meiss, Ivan Ivanovich Tiffany Mosher, Jenna Savella, Brendan Saye, Valerie Kuinka Tympani Christopher Stalzer, Dylan Tedaldi Johann Lotter Michael Perry, Principal James Applewhite, Jack Bertinshaw, Trygve Cumpston, Larry Toman Percussion Shaila D’Onofrio, Krista Dowson, Nadine Drouin, Jackson Dwyer, Tim Francom, Principal Hannah Fischer, Francesco Gabriele Frola, Giorgio Galli, Cellos Selene Guerrero-Trujillo, Emma Hawes, Juri Hiraoka, Maurizio Baccante, Kristofer Maddigan Ji Min Hong, Kathryn Hosier, Rui Huang, Harrison James, Principal Mark Mazur Lise-Marie Jourdain, Larissa Khotchenkova, Miyoko Koyasu, James Leja, Elizabeth Marrable, Shino Mori, Jaclyn Oakley, Marianne Pack Orchestra Personnel + Andreea Olteanu, Asiel Rivero, Joseph Steinauer, Nan Wang, Peter Cosbey Manager and Music + Aarik Wells, Sarah Elena Wolff Mary-Katherine Finch Administrator RBC Apprentice Programme / YOU dance: Olga Laktionova* Raymond Tizzard Rhiannon Fairless, Liana Macera, Elenora Morris, Felix Paquet, Elaine Thompson Meghan Pugh, Ben Rudisin, Kota Sato. Martin ten Kortenaar, Andrew McIntosh Librarian Mimi Tompkins, Ethan Watts Paul Widner Lucie Parent Robert Binet Lorna Geddes Basses Assistant to the Music Guillaume Côté Pointe Shoe Manager / Hans. J.F. Preuss, Director Choeographic Associates Assistant Ballet Mistress Principal Jean Verch Ernest Abugov Joysanne Sidimus Paul Langley * On Leave of Absence Jeff Morris Guest Balanchine Robert Speer + Additional Musician Stage Managers Répétiteur Cary Takagaki Peter Sherk Flutes Stage Manager, YOU dance Leslie J. Allt, Principal * Principal Guest Artist Maria Pelletier +Guest Artist Shelley Brown, Piccolo Maternity leave Page 2 national.ballet.ca Wednesday, March 19 at 7:30 pm Thursday, March 20 at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm Friday, March 21 at 7:30 pm Saturday, March 22 at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm Sunday March 23 at 2:00 pm Conductor: David LaMarche, Guest Conductor Onegin Choreography: John Cranko Staged by: Reid Anderson Based on the poem by Alexander Pushkin Copyright: Dieter Graefe Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Arrangement and Orchestration: Kurt-Heinz Stolze Set and Costume Design: Santo Loquasto Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls Répétiteurs: Magdalena Popa, Peter Ottmann and Rex Harrington World Premiere: Stuttgart Ballet, Stuttgart, Germany: April 13, 1965 The National Ballet of Canada Premiere: June 14, 1984 This production entered the repertoire on June 19, 2010. Onegin is generously supported by an anonymous friend of the National Ballet. Artists of the Ballet. Photo by Aleksandar Antonijevic. Jonathan Renna with Artists of the Ballet. Photo by Nancy Paiva. Page 3 The Cast Eugene Onegin Olga, another daughter McGee Maddox (Mar 19, 20 eve, 22 mat) Elena Lobsanova* (Mar 19, 20 eve, 22 mat) Aleksandar Antonijevic (Mar 20 mat, 22 eve) Jillian Vanstone (Mar 20 mat, 21, 22 eve, 23) Guillaume Côté (Mar 21, 23) Nurse to Tatiana and Olga Lensky, his friend Lorna Geddes Evan McKie+ (Mar 19, 20 eve, 22 mat) Piotr Stanczyk (Mar 20 mat, 22 eve) Prince Gremin, friend to the Larina family Naoya Ebe* (Mar 21, 23) Patrick Lavoie (Mar 19, 20 eve, 22 mat) Jonathan Renna (Mar 20 mat, 22 eve) Madame Larina, a widow Etienne Lavigne (Mar 21, 23) Alejandra Perez-Gomez (Mar 19, 20 eve, 22 mat) Relatives, countryfolk, members Rebekah Rimsay (Mar 20 mat, 21, 22 eve, 23) of St. Petersburg nobility Artists of the Ballet Tatiana, her daughter Xiao Nan Yu (Mar 19, 20 eve, 22 mat) * Debut Sonia Rodriguez (Mar 20 mat, 22 eve) + Principal Guest Artist Greta Hodgkinson (Mar 21, 23) All casting is subject to change. Evan McKie’s appearance as Principal Guest Artist is made possible by a generous donation from The Frank Gerstein Charitable Foundation. Greta Hodgkinson and Guillaume Côté. Photo by Sian Richards. Page 4 national.ballet.ca Synopsis Act I Prince Gremin, a distant relation, appears. Scene 1: Madame Larina’s Garden He is in love with Tatiana and Madame Larina Madame Larina, Olga and the nurse are finishing hopes for a brilliant match but Tatiana, troubled the party dresses and gossiping about Tatiana’s with her own heart, hardly notices her kindly, upcoming birthday festivities. Madame Larina older relation. speculates on the future and reminisces about Onegin, in his boredom, decides to provoke her own lost beauty and youth. Lensky by flirting with Olga who light-heartedly Lensky, a young poet engaged to Olga, joins in his teasing. But Lensky takes the matter arrives with a friend from St. Petersburg. He with passionate seriousness. He challenges introduces Onegin, who, bored with the city, Onegin to a duel. has come to see if the country can offer him any distraction. Tatiana, full of youthful and Scene 2: The Duel romantic fantasies, falls in love with the elegant Tatiana and Olga try to reason with Lensky stranger, so different from the country people but his high romantic ideals are shattered by she knows. Onegin, on the other hand, sees the betrayal of his friend and the fickleness in Tatiana only a naive country girl who reads of his beloved; he insists that the duel take too many romantic novels. place. Onegin kills his friend and for the first time his cold heart is moved by the horror of Scene 2: Tatiana’s Bedroom his deed. Tatiana realizes that her love was Tatiana, her imagination aflame with impetuous an illusion and that Onegin is self-centred first love, dreams of Onegin and writes him a and empty. passionate love letter, which she gives to her nurse to deliver. Intermission 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 the letter. Tatiana’s distress, instead of awakening pity, Aleksandar Antonijevic and Sonia Rodriguez. merely increases his irritation. Photo by Bruce Zinger. Page 5 Intermission Scene 2: Tatiana’s Nursery Tatiana reads a letter from Onegin, which Act III reveals his love for her. Suddenly he stands Scene 1: St. Petersburg before her, impatient to know her answer. Onegin, having travelled the world for many Tatiana sorrowfully tells him that although she years in an attempt to escape his own futility, still feels her passionate girlhood love for him, returns to St. Petersburg where he is received she is now a woman and she could never find at a ball in the palace of Prince Gremin. happiness with him or have respect for him. Gremin has recently married and Onegin is She orders him to leave her forever. astonished to recognize in the stately and elegant young princess, Tatiana, the Running Time uninteresting little country girl whom he once Act I 40 minutes turned away. The enormity of his mistake Intermission 20 minutes and loss engulfs him. His life now seems ACT II 30 minutes even more aimless and empty. Intermission 20 minutes ACT III 30 minutes The performance will run approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes. Tatiana’s Letter “I write to you – no more confession you find the country godforsaken; is needed, nothing’s left to tell. though we... don’t shine in anyway, I know it’s now in your discretion our joy in you is warmly taken. with scorn to make my world a hell. Why did you visit us, but why? But, if you’ve kept some faint impression Lost in our backwoods habitation of pity for my wretched state, I’d not have known you, therefore I you’ll never leave me to my fate. would have been spared this laceration. At first I thought it out of season In time, who knows, the agitation to speak; believe me: of my shame of inexperience would have passed, you’d not so much as know the name, I would have found a friend, another, if I’d possessed the slightest reason and in the role of virtuous mother to hope that even once a week and faithful wife I’d have been cast.