OVERVIEW
Choreography: John Cranko
Three Act Ballet. Based on the Novel by Alexander Pushkin.
Music: Kurt-Heinz Stolze after Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Supported by Mrs. Norah Orphanides
This production contains the use of theatrical firearms in Act II.
When Tatiana, a young country girl, is introduced to Onegin, a worldly aristocrat bored with the city, he becomes the object of her innocent and unyielding affection. Yet, in his eyes, he sees only a coltish girl who reads too many romance novels. When fate brings them back together years later, Onegin finds himself yearning for the love he once dismissed—only to face the devastating consequences of his past actions.
Based on Alexander Pushkin's novel Eugene Onegin, John Cranko’s Onegin is a timeless tale of love, rejection, and regret. Using an arrangement of Tchaikovsky compositions by Kurt-Heinz Stolze, the ballet features well-developed characters with rich psychological depth, who evolve through compelling character arcs as the story unfolds across its three acts.
Premiering in 1965, Cranko created Onegin for Stuttgart Ballet, where he served as artistic director. Under his leadership, the company became an artistic Eden, cultivating a thriving environment that influenced the dance world for years to come. Cranko encouraged his dancers to be artists, technicians, and choreographers, and Stuttgart Ballet became a fertile ground for future choreographic talent, producing legendary choreographers like Jirí Kylián, John Neumeier, and William Forsythe.
Cranko’s Onegin is one of the defining ballets of this rich artistic legacy, and it continues to resonate in the dance world today. Its profound emotional depth and groundbreaking choreography have made it a cornerstone of the classical ballet repertoire.
Onstage Dinner | Friday, September 5, 2025
Shara and Kent Schaffer | Chairmen
Jim Nelson | Honoree
Join us in honoring Executive Director, Jim Nelson, as he celebrates his eminent career with Houston Ballet alongside a toast to the Ballet’s dear friend, Margaret Alkek Williams, and her 90th Birthday.
SYNOPSIS
MAIN CHARACTERS
Onegin, Tatiana, Olga, Lensky
Larina, Gremin, Nurse
*CONTAINS STORY SPOILERS
ACT I
Scene One: Madame Larina's Garden
Madame Larina, Olga, and the nurse are finishing the party dresses and gossiping about Tatiana's coming birthday festivities. Madame Larina speculates on the future. Girls from the neighborhood arrive and play an old folk game in which whoever looks into the mirror will see her beloved.
Lensky, a young poet engaged to Olga, arrives with a friend from St. Petersburg. He introduces Onegin, who, bored with the city, has come to see if the country can offer him any distraction. Tatiana, full of youthful and romantic fantasies, falls in love with the elegant stranger, so different from the country people she knows. Onegin, on the other hand, sees only a coltish girl who reads too many romantic novels.
Scene Two: Tatiana's Bedroom
Tatiana, her imagination aflame with impetuous first love, dreams of Onegin and writes him a passionate love letter, which she gives her nurse to deliver.
INTERMISSION
ACT II
Scene One: Tatiana's Birthday
The provincial gentry have come to celebrate Tatiana's birthday. Onegin finds the company boring. Stifling his yawns, he finds it difficult to be civil; 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 her letter. Tatiana's distress, instead of awakening pity, merely increases his irritation.
Prince Gremin, a distant relative, appears. He is in love with Tatiana, and Madame Larina hopes for a brilliant match; but Tatiana, troubled with her own heart, hardly notices her kind relative.
Onegin, in his boredom, decides to provoke Lensky by flirting with Olga, who lightheartedly joins in the teasing. But Lensky takes the matter with passionate seriousness. He challenges Onegin to a duel.
Scene Two: The Duel
Tatiana and Olga try to reason with Lensky, but his high romantic ideals have been shattered by the betrayal of his friend and the fickleness of his beloved; he insists that the duel take place. Onegin kills his friend.
INTERMISSION
ACT III
Scene One: St. Petersburg
Years later, Onegin, having traveled the world in an attempt to escape from his own sense of futility, returns to St. Petersburg, where he is received at a ball in the palace of Prince Gremin. Gremin has married. Onegin is astonished to recognize in the stately and elegant young princess Tatiana the uninteresting little country girl whom he once turned away. The enormity of his mistakes and loss engulfs him. His life now seems even more aimless and empty.
Scene Two: Tatiana's Boudoir
Onegin has written to Tatiana, revealing his love and asking to see her, but she does not wish to meet him. She pleads in vain with her unsuspecting husband not to leave her alone this evening. Onegin comes and declares his love for her. In spite of her emotional turmoil, Tatiana realizes that Onegin's change of heart has come too late. Before his eyes, she tears up his letter and orders him to leave her forever.
ARTISTS
John Cranko (1927-1973)
CHOREOGRAPHER, ONEGIN
Stuttgart Ballet founder and choreographer John Cranko was born in Rustenburg, South Africa. He received his dance education mainly at the University of Cape Town and at the Sadler's Wells School in London. He joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet (later The Royal Ballet) in 1946 and in a few years began his choreographic career. He created his first full-length ballet, The Prince of the Pagodas, in 1957 for The Royal Ballet. In 1961, John Cranko was appointed ballet director in Stuttgart. The breakthrough for Cranko came in December 1962 with the world premiere of Romeo and Juliet, which was highly praised by critics and audience alike. Mr. Cranko's dramatic story ballets Onegin, The Taming of the Shrew, Carmen, and Swan Lake secured his place as one of the world's great choreographers. In addition, he encouraged young dancers in his company - including Jiří Kylián and John Neumeier - to try their hand at choreography. Mr. Cranko died in 1973.
Kurt-Heinz Stolze (1926-1970)
COMPOSER, ONEGIN
Kurt-Heinz Stolze was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1926. Stolze was John Cranko's closest musical advisor and became well-known in particular for his musical arrangements for Cranko’s masterpieces Onegin and The Taming of the Shrew. After studying piano, organ and conducting, he was engaged as music director at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1957 he joined the music staff of the State Theatre Stuttgart, where he focused on music for ballet and worked closely with John Cranko. He arranged Antonio Vivaldi's concert cycle for Cranko's L'estro Armonico and composed the music for Cranko’s Wir reisen nach Jerusalem (We Travel to Jerusalem). He also orchestrated Stuttgart Ballet’s productions of Les Sylphides and Kyrie Eleisas and conducted the orchestra for the Stuttgart Ballet on numerous occasions. In 1965, Stolze arranged and orchestrated the score for Cranko's Onegin based on various motifs from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's complete works, thereby contributing to the world-wide success of the piece. Four years later he orchestrated and arranged the music for another Cranko classic, The Taming of the Shrew, based on Domenico Scarlatti. He also conducted numerous ballets and worked in radio and film. He passed away in Munich, Germany on August 12th, 1970.
HISTORY
ONEGIN REPERTOIRE HISTORY
This will be Houston Ballet’s third time performing John Cranko’s Onegin. Celebrating its 60th anniversary, John Cranko’s Onegin draws on Alexander Pushkin’s novel Eugene Onegin. Other works by John Cranko include The Taming of the Shrew (2011) and The Lady and the Fool (1978) in the Houston Ballet repertory.
ONEGIN PRODUCTION DETAILS
CHOREOGRAPHER: John Cranko
GENRE: Classical Ballet
RUN TIME: Ballet with 3 Acts; approximately 2 hours and 17 minutes with two 20-minute intermissions
LOCATION: Brown Theater at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, Texas
COMPOSER: Kurt-Heinz Stolze after P.I. Tchaikovsky
ORIGINAL PREMIERE DATE: April 13, 1965 by Stuttgart Ballet at the Württemberg State Theatre in Stuttgart, Germany.
HOUSTON BALLET PREMIERE DATE: September 8, 2005 in the Brown Theater at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, Texas.
COSTUME & SCENIC DESIGN: Santo Loquasto
LIGHTING DESIGN: James F. Ingalls
STAGER (2025): Jane Bourne
SUPERVISOR & COPYRIGHT (2025): Reid Anderson-Graefe
BALLET MASTERS (2025): Ian Casady, Amy Fote, Hayden Stark, Steven Woodgate
HOUSTON BALLET ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR (2025): Simon Thew
HOUSTON BALLET STAGE MANAGER (2025): Anna-Marie Monzon
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