The ballet was based on Alexander Pushkin's 1825–1832 novel Eugene Onegin, to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and arrangements by Kurt-Heinz Stolze.

[2][1][3] Cranko first discovered Alexander Pushkin's verse-novel Eugene Onegin when he choreographed the dances for Tchaikovsky's opera of the same name in 1952.

He first proposed a ballet based on Pushkin's story to the Royal Opera House board in the 1960s, but it was turned down, and he pursued the idea when he moved to Stuttgart.

[5][n 1] The original principals were Marcia Haydée as Tatiana, Ray Barra as Onegin, Egon Madsen as Lensky and Ana Cardus as Olga.

His scenario originally ended with Tatiana kissing her children goodnight, which he decided lessened the drama of her final encounter with Onegin.

Veronica Tennant and Luc Amyot were originally scheduled to star in the premiere, but withdrew due to injuries.

Later that year, The Royal Ballet made their company premiere, with Tamara Rojo and Adam Cooper in the lead roles.

[12] As the sets and costumes became fragile, the National Ballet invited Santo Loquasto to redesign the production, which debuted in 2010.

They think about the future, and the local girls play an old folk game: whoever looks into the mirror will see her beloved.

Tatiana falls in love with the handsome stranger, who seems so different from the country people she knows, while Onegin only sees a naive, romantic girl.

[7] By 1974, when the Stuttgart company presented the piece at Covent Garden shortly after Cranko's death, the critic John Percival reassessed the work much more favourably, praising both the music and the narrative expertise of the choreography.

[20] Three years later the critic in The Sunday Times found that the work's "acutely expressive choreography ... never fails to enthral... Cranko's handling of the Pushkin story as dance is masterly.

"[21] Other comments have included "compelling but dramatically flawed",[22] "magnificent ... a neck-pricking five-star triumph,[23] "stodgily operatic"[24] and "a sad, beautiful ballet, a true romance with four finely drawn leading characters and a grown-up poignance rarely found.

9 (as a main musical theme for Tatiana and Onegin), the symphonic fantasy Francesca da Rimini, Op.

[18] In light of the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on the performing arts, Stuttgart Ballet released the recording online.