Entertainment

Not all poetry in motion

All the passion in the world can ring hollow if it doesn’t come from the heart. American Ballet Theatre’s opening night Monday of “Onegin” was long on exquisite dancing, but short on feeling.

John Cranko’s 1965 ballet, which the company’s danced since 2001, uses bits and pieces of Tchaikovsky — everything except his opera “Eugene Onegin” — to tell Pushkin’s uniquely Russian story of a world-weary dandy who repents too late. This revival featured different designs — Santo Loquasto’s birch trees and pavilions tinted olive and clay — and several debuts.

It didn’t hurt that both leading ladies were Russian. Diana Vishneva played Tatiana, a young woman with stars in her eyes and a romantic novel in her hands. She fell for Onegin with morbid ardor; the color drained from her cheeks at her first glimpse of him.

Natalia Osipova portrayed younger sister Olga as a minx whose high spirits gradually became thoughtless cruelty. Her suitor, the poet Lensky, was another debut, Jared Matthews, who had the long legs the part required but not enough poetry.

The title role is the killer, a tricky partnering marathon that challenged even Marcelo Gomes. You could see him calculating when to yank Vishneva airborne, spinning her around like a planet in orbit. He had trouble embodying the cold and haughty Onegin, and was more believable in a dream sequence that had him making love to Tatiana.

He and Vishneva were at their best in the final, no-holds-barred duet. As Onegin, who’d rejected Tatiana years before, pleaded for her love, Gomes threw himself at Vishneva’s feet and then tossed her overhead, where she collapsed into his arms in conflicted desire.

Yet it all appeared premeditated. Despite a wealth of beautiful details, Vishneva knew all too well how she wanted to look, and never departed from her script. Gomes hadn’t entirely figured out Onegin, and banked on a showy display.

But what felt hollow could ring true when they get another shot at it tonight.