RB 'Onegin' reviews 'Onegin' reviews Putrov in reviews Burn in reviews recent RB reviews more Lynette Halewood reviews

It’s a pity because Onegin sits very naturally on the Royal and fits in with their strengths in conveying powerful emotions within a narrative. But to do this most effectively the dancers need to have worked with each other for a sustained period. The quartet of leading dancers here seemed to have had only fleeting acquaintance with each other before meeting on stage. Jane Burn’s Olga was sweetly flirty, but oddly looked much more secure and happy dancing with Onegin than with her fiancé, Lensky. It was hard to believe in these two as an established couple (or in any real relationship between him and Lensky, come to that). Putrov as Lensky seemed to be concentrating very heavily on his solo dancing, with rather attention paid to his acting – it was something he remembered to do from time to time. His solo dancing is developing very well (he is a dancer you can see learning more every day) but his partnering left Jane Burn looking rather uncomfortable at times. It feels odd to see the corps numbers in Act one getting a much more warm audience response than Lensky and Olga’s pas de deux.

Mara Galeazzi as Tatiana and Adam Cooper as Onegin had both impressed me earlier this season in their roles, but this was the first time I had seen them together. What seemed a good combination on paper didn’t quite come together as powerfully as you might have wished: more rehearsal time might have helped. This wasn’t a poor performance by any means and had some beautiful moments but I feel haunted by the feeling that these two have it in them to produce something more blazingly intense that would leave you utterly wrung out rather than just touched.

Adam was the same brooding, cold, self loathing creature as he had been earlier this season, with the fine details of his emotions nicely conveyed (even to the depths of the amphi). The moment where he steps through the mirror into the dreaming Tatiana’s bedroom has a remarkable frisson. Galeazzi is at her best in the final act (a very nice pas de deux with Christopher Saunders as her husband, creditably creating a character within a small space of time). Oddly though the final pas de deux didn’t leave me quite as moved as the first time I had seen her do this, and it’s difficult to put a finger on why. It’s not as if they stinted on the risk taking, and Cooper was torn by desperation and anguish. But these vagaries of performance are sometimes the reason we keep going back – one of these days there will be a performance that works magically, and I wish I could be there to see it.

The score seemed much more rewarding at this hearing than on earlier outings this season. The orchestra is BRB’s Royal Ballet Sinfonia rather than the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, and was conducted by Charles Barker