As it turns out, lighting can, indeed, strike twice in the same place. In 2019, Yuri Possokhov, a longtime friend of the Joffrey Ballet, created his first original full-length narrative ballet with the Chicago company. That was “Anna Karenina,” fashioned after Leo Tolstoy’s gargantuan novel.
Now, Possokhov tackles the yin to Anna’s yang, a danced depiction of Alexander Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin.” The ballet opened Thursday for a two-week run at the Lyric Opera House after the co-commission with the San Francisco Ballet debuted there in January, and it is nothing short of miraculous.
Pushkin’s 1831 novel is a fraction of the length and quite different in its style, composition and era from “Anna Karenina.” Not to mention, the two tragic love stories — now paired within Joffrey’s catalog, in my mind, as companion pieces — turn out very differently.
Anna chose temptation and desire, leading to tragic consequences and her own death by suicide. In “Eugene Onegin,” the leading lady chooses duty and honor, marrying the man she’s supposed to marry and, we assume, regretting it, but believing she made the right decision.
That’s Tatiana Larina, portrayed by Victoria Jaiani on Thursday (a role she shares with Jeraldine Mendoza and Amanda Assucena). Sick with grief and generally indifferent to Tatiana’s advances, “Eugene Onegin’s” title character, danced opening night by José Pablo Castro Cuevas, later realizes he actually does love Tatiana, but by then, it’s too late.
The ballet’s four acts (split by a single intermission) are built around the four seasons, beginning in spring and ending during winter, several years later. Seasonal sprites flit and flutter, providing transitional scenes, hinting at mystical elements whizzing all around within this otherwise very human plot. Each little pack of fairies dons wispy frocks patterned in seasonal ombres — pink and green in spring, for example, and crisp blue and white for the winter — while the terrestrials wear gorgeous, mostly-period clothes (by costume designer Tim Yip and constructed at Joffrey) evoking Pushkin’s Romantic era, which in Russia, was apparently a bit more austere than its European counterpart.
That mysticism returns in a wacky dream sequence foreshadowing the collateral damage unfolding in the ballet’s back half: Tatiana’s bubbly and blithe sister Olga (danced Thursday by Anais Bueno), is engaged to an equally jovial friend of Onegin’s named Vladimir Lensky (Xavier Núñez), who is the one that introduced Onegin to Tatiana.
At a party, Onegin gets a bit handsy with his friend’s bride-to-be and Lensky has no choice, presumably, but to challenge the other man to a duel.
Lensky loses, a result we could have anticipated from Tatiana’s deliciously weird fever dream, which depicts Onegin in a bear’s head and other half-human hybrids. Picture David Lynch’s “Inland Empire” on the set of Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” and you get close to the wild world that Possokhov, Yip, scenic designer Tom Pye, lighting designer Jim French and projectionist Finn Ross have created.
Filling that rich container is the Lyric Opera Orchestra playing composer Ilya Demutsky’s miracle of a score: elegiac and appropriately schmaltzy enough for a beefy Russian tragedy while remaining playful and lithe, pairing tuba and marimba, for example, or cello and glockenspiel, to keep listeners on their toes. As for the dancing, Possokhov and Demutsky’s creative partnership is one for the ages. Like the music, Possokhov maintains a balance between the silly and serious. It’s a ballet that is clearly made for 2026 — but also is timeless.
And while San Francisco Ballet no doubt danced the pants off this beautiful ballet (Possokhov, after all, is that company’s resident choreographer), Joffrey’s penchant for shapeshifting between classical and contemporary sets them up to dance this exceedingly well. They do. And perhaps most notably, Castro Cuevas does.
On paper, it’s a partnership that shouldn’t actually work — Castro Cuevas and Jaiani’s, that is. To my knowledge, they’ve never danced on stage together before now. And Jaiani, relatively tall for a ballerina, is more used to the high-altitude conditions dancing with 6-foot-4 Dylan Gutierrez (who on Thursday dances as the lovely guy Tatiana pragmatically marries) and, prior to that, Fabrice Calmels — who is even taller than Gutierrez. Alberto Velazquez, who was originally cast as the Onegin to Jaiani’s Tatiana, is now out of this run entirely, presumably injured. In fact, the Joffrey’s bench is so thin right now, San Francisco Ballet dancer Joseph Walsh has been brought in as a guest to partner with Assucena next weekend.
From such challenges come opportunities. Castro Cuevas turns out to be far more than a formidable partner to Jaiani. As Onegin, he asserts himself as a Joffrey supernova, giving the performance of his life Thursday night. His star began to rise two years ago, dancing the lead role in Liam Scarlett’s “Frankenstein” as the tortured scientist who tempts fate by creating a monster he can’t control. As Onegin, Castro Cuevas tells Victor Frankenstein to hold his beer. But the monster, in this case, is Onegin’s own inner demons.
Riddled with ennui in the wake of his uncle’s death, Onegin rejects Tatiana’s heartfelt pursuit as she tries to love him. Her advances are met with the dance equivalent of swiping left. Still, she practically throws herself at him. He doesn’t entirely reject her, as if to say, “I like you. You’re pretty, and nice, and fun and all. I’m just not in an emotional place for a relationship right now.”
Tatiana is the softer, sweeter, more introspective and rational of the Larina sisters. Olga, on the other hand just, like, moves on, when her beau is killed in that duel, finding a soldier to dote on in the very next scene. Onegin, on the other hand, comes to regret his decisions, collapsing with sorrow when he comes to realize he actually does love Tatiana in the ballet’s wintry finale. Sad for him, I guess, but my gosh, is it pretty.
Lauren Warnecke is a freelance critic.
Review: “Eugene Onegin” (4 stars)
When: Through June 14
Where: Joffrey Ballet at Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive
Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes with an intermission
Tickets: $46-$221 at 312-386-8905 and joffrey.org
