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We were lucky enough to see two performances by the RDB in Copenhagen. The first thing I noticed was how small the stage looked compared to what I had been used to at the Coliseum and Covent Garden. The company used the space well and while the stage looked full it never seemed to look over-crowded. Graham Bond conducted the magnificent orchestra and that was another trip down memory lane for me because he was also the conductor at the first performance I saw.

On Friday night Yao Wei and Mads Blangstrup graced the leading roles of Tatiana and Onegin. Yao Wei is a very dramatic dancer and you could really see her grow from naïve young girl to a mature and loving wife who is torn by the return of her “first love”. Mads Blangstrup is a tall, elegant dancer. He portrayed Onegin as a worldly gentleman, slightly bored at a country-house party and striving to remain polite and attentive until he became cross as Tatiana tried to express her feelings. He whipped up a fine anger in the duel scene and left the stage a man broken by the tragedy of what had happened. Both dancers gave very believable portrayals that really fleshed out the characters. They were magnificent in the final duet. Blangstrup had seemed fairly remote until this duet, when his anguish was palpable. The section where he is following Tatiana on his knees and holding out his arms pleading with her was just breath-taking.

Femke Molbach Slot was a sweet-natured, flirtatious Olga at both the performances that we saw. On Friday her Lenski was the very young-looking Charles Andersen, who was obviously very much in love with her. You could see his character progress from fun-loving young man, to an angry and jealous lover through to his anguish at the prospect of the duel when he has realised that he will probably die. Marcin Kupinski was Lenski on Wednesday night; another young dancer with a strong acting ability.

With this company’s long tradition of strong character artists, the party scene at the start of Act 2 looked much more realistic than I have seen in performances elsewhere as the older people basically just looked more real! The corps were on fine form and the boys in Act 1 had particular fun with the girls.

On Wednesday night we had had the privilege of seeing Kenneth Greve and Gudrun Bojesen as Onegin and Tatiana. They were utterly magnificent together. As with Yao Wei, you could see her progress from a studious and naïve young girl to a mature woman, happy and contented with her husband until torn when Onegin turns up after many years. Kenneth Greve gave a dazzling performance. His Onegin was a tortured soul from the start – he was bored at the house party but you could see that he longed to find some of the happiness shown by Olga and Lenski. He was distraught when he realised that Lenski was determined to go ahead with the duel and a broken man when he had killed him. He was a tragic figure when he arrived at Gremin’s home for the ball – you could see that he had spent the intervening years regretting his actions. He and Bojesen were just awesome in the final duet – it was absolutely heart-breaking.

We had seen two terrific performances of my favourite ballet and I came away from both with mascara streaks on my face and more memories to add to my store.