BALLET REVIEW : Strong ‘Onegin’ by Canadian Principals

John Cranko’s “Onegin” is a ballet about the death of illusions, a theme strongly projected by the accomplished and well-matched National Ballet of Canada principals dancing in Pasadena Civic Auditorium on Monday--the opening night of the company’s Los Angeles-area engagement.

(The Canadians began their Southern California visit performing the same ballet with a different cast Thursday in San Diego, and will appear in Costa Mesa next week before returning to Toronto.)

At 35, Frank Augustyn brings to the title role all the technical and interpretive skills he has honed through a major career. His Onegin is memorably world-weary, self-absorbed, capricious--and if Augustyn occasionally overstresses the melodrama of the ballet, he also manages Cranko’s fearsome partnering challenges superbly.

As Tatiana, Sabina Allemann floats exultantly in this Onegin’s arms, released into her impossible high-Romantic fantasy. Compared to her rather sedate performance of the role in a 1986 CBC telecast (available in this country on home video), Allemann here attacks her opportunities boldly. She emphasizes girlish shyness, softness and wide-eyed trust in the early scenes (this is not a neurotic Tatiana a la Marcia Haydee) and grows persuasively to the mature elegance and passion of the last act.

Since he left American Ballet Theatre five years ago, Gregory Osborne has developed into a distinctively heroic danseur noble . As Lensky, he strikingly parallels Allemann in his happy, uncomprehending belief and vulnerability early on; after his downfall, he strikingly parallels Augustyn in the grand Romantic style of his despair. A fine performance, weakened only by effortful partnering.

Although Kim Lightheart offers an off-the-rack portrayal of Olga--pert, unseeing, etc.--she dances with the refined, informed classicism that distinguishes the whole company. And Hazaros Surmeyan contributes a highly individual performance as Gremin, showing us a slightly fussy, endearing old coot who loves his young wife dearly, but will never even glimpse her deepest needs.

Ermanno Florio capably conducts the patchwork-Tchaikovsky score.