With its tortured romance and soaring choreography, John Cranko’s “Onegin” feels right at home on the Royal Opera House stage.
When Svetlana Lunkina, one of the world's foremost ballerinas, arrived in Toronto fresh from the Bolshoi Ballet just a few years ago, she was greeted with enthusiasm, and a touch of curiosity. What would Toronto do with a star of her stature? At 18, Lunkina was the youngest dancer to perform the role of Giselle in the history of the Bolshoi, and her debut cast no doubt about her future. She rocketed to principal and danced for fifteen years in the great theatre.
It takes “layers and layers of tulle together in a honeycomb construction that opens up when it closes”[i] to make a tail that befits a White Rabbit. It takes countless hours (of drafting, devising, twinkling, rehearsing, measuring, stitching, and repeating thrice) to create a world of nonsense in every sense and this is as it should be.
Together, “Asphodel Meadows” and “The Two Pigeons” compose an impressive double bill.
