Review: Onegin with The Royal Ballet – Natalia Osipova is a great dance-actress… electrifying

With The Royal Ballet‘s 2024/2025 season drawing to a close, the company has embarked on a second run of performances of John Cranko‘s ever-popular Onegin. They feature an array of new casts and, later in June, a guest appearance in the title role from La Scala’s Roberto Bolle, who recently celebrated his 50^th birthday. That makes a total of 20 performances of Onegin this season, which is surely too many for any ballet company, let alone The Royal Ballet (recent runs by the company of Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet had even more performances, and so will Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, yet to come). The Royal Ballet’s repertoire currently offers far too little variety and can hardly be stimulating for either dancers or audiences, but it’s probably down to simple economics and, sadly, the ‘bums on seats’ factor. More worryingly, this trend seems set to be repeated next season, with longer runs of fewer ballets.

Enough doom-mongering, though, as it is an absolute pleasure to report here on an electrifying account of Tatiana in Onegin by Natalia Osipova on 3^rd June that ranked alongside the very best. A great dance-actress, Osipova – just like Lynn Seymour in the same role nearly 40 years ago – conveys Tatiana’s every thought and emotion on her face and through her body with such compelling honesty that you are simply swept along by the intensity of her performance. With Osipova in the role, every gesture, look and mood rang true and direct, from Tatiana’s secret yearning for Onegin in the first act to the terrible hurt at his rejection in the second, and the devastation of her confrontation with him at the conclusion.

Natalia Osipova (Tatiana) in Onegin, 2025 RBO. Photgraphed by Andrej Uspenski

Onegin, The Royal Ballet, 2025 RBO. Photgraphed by Andrej Uspenski

Throughout that last, heart-breaking duet, Osipova had the audience on tenterhooks – would she or wouldn’t she succumb? – and she left us in no doubt, as the curtain fell, that here was a woman distraught and emotionally destroyed by her final encounter with Onegin. In addition, Osipova brought such impulsiveness, such weight, and such variety and daring to her dancing that every step was like a spontaneous reaction to the events happening around her. In short, she was exceptional – a tremendous performance from a wonderful artist, and, moreover, an artist who understands truly the power of theatre.

The rest of the cast were very fine but could not quite match Osipova in her conviction. Young Lukas B Brændsrød danced with long-limbed elegance and was good at conveying Onegin’s snobbery and disdain of those whom he considers his social inferiors, but this highly promising young dancer needs to develop a stronger stage presence – his character seemed slight. Sae Maeda was sparky, and danced sweetly as Tatiana’s sister, Olga, and Nicol Edmonds was chivalrous and ardent as Tatiana’s husband, Prince Gremin. I had high hopes in advance for Joseph Sissens‘ account of Lensky, Olga’s fiancé. He is an artist I admire immensely, and, as always, he danced with beautiful fluency and style, but, like Brændsrød, I found his performance strangely lacking in depth and individuality.

Nonetheless, thanks to Osipova, as well as the orchestral playing under conductor Wolfgang Heinz, this thrilling performance of Onegin, just like that of Lynn Seymour all those years ago, will linger in my memory for a long time. 

Lukas B Brændsrød (Onegin), Natalia Osipova (Tatiana) in Onegin, 2025 RBO. Ph Andrej Uspenski

Sae Maeda (Olga), Joseph Sissens (Lensky) in Onegin, 2025 RBO. Ph Andrej Uspenski

Natalia Osipova (Tatiana), Nicol Edmonds (Prince Gremin) in Onegin, 2025 RBO. Ph Andrej Uspenski

Jonathan Gray Guest Author

Jonathan Gray was editor of Dancing Times from 2008 to 2022.

He studied at The Royal Ballet School, Leicester Polytechnic, and Wimbledon School of Art where he graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. He was on the Curatorial Staff of the Theatre Museum, London, from 1989 to 2005, assisting on a number of dance-related exhibitions, and helping with the recreation of original designs for a number of The Royal Ballet’s productions including Danses concertantes, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Sleeping Beauty.

Jonathan Gray has also contributed to the Financial Times and The Guardian, written programme articles for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is co-author of the book Unleashing Britain: Theatre gets real 1955-64, published in 2005. He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.