Romeo and Juliet ballet. Music by Sergei Prokofiev. Choreography by John Cranko. Filmed 2017 at the State Theatre Stuttgart. Stars Elisa Badenes (Juliet), David Moore (Romeo), Reid Anderson (Lord Capulet), Melinda Witham (Lady Capulet), Robert Robinson (Tybalt), Roman Novitzky (Count Paris), Marcia Haydée (Juliet’s Nurse), Matteo Crockard-Villa (Lord Montague), Julia Bergua Orero (Lady Montague), Martí Fernández Paixà (Mercutio), Adhonay Soares da Silva (Benvolio), Rolando D’Alesio (Duke of Verona), Egon Madsen (Friar Laurence), and Rocio Aleman (Rosaline); Katarzyna Kozielska, Ami Morite, and Magdalena Dziegielewsha (Gypsies); Alexander McGowan, Aurora de Mori, Paula Rezende, and Louis Stiens (Carnival Dancers). James Tuggle conducts the State Orchestra Stuttgart. Set and costume design by Jürgen Rose. Directed for TV by Michael Beyer. (It appears this was shot in 4K but published in 2K.) Released 2018, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+
There have been 3 major versions of Romeo and Juliet.
The original, choreographed by Lavrovsky, played in Russia during World War II. It was an ideological ballet featuring progressive young people vs. feudal traditions. Prokofiev’s score for this, now considered to be the greatest ballet score not written by Tchaikovsky, was pretty controversial back in those days.
Cranko in 1962 took up Prokofiev’s music and added a narrative ballet that follows well the basic themes of the Shakespeare play. It doesn’t have an epilogue with the two warring families making peace, but everyone knows that’s the whole point of the story. Cranko’s version has been playing in Stuttgart now for 60 years and is repertory in a number of ballet companies around the world.
MacMillan in 1965 pretty much plagiarized the Cranko version wholesale at the Royal Opera House in London. Exploiting the greater financial power of the Royal and it’s larger staff of dancers, his turbocharged R&J became the production most ballet fans are familiar with. We have 2 A+ Blu-rays of the MacMillan show: the 2009 recording with Acosta and Tamara Rojo at the Royal Opera Ballet and the equally good 2017 La Scala version with Roberto Bolle and Misty Copeland.
In 2017, the Stuttgart Ballet finally published a Blu-ray of Cranko’s groundbreaking creation. When I first saw it recently, I was not aware of the history sketched out above. I kept thinking, “This is really good, but are they copying the ROB show?” Now I know something about the history of R&J in ballet, my admiration for the Cranko version has grown even more.
Let’s go to Verona in 1350 or so. It’s carnival time and everybody loves Romeo (center below, David Moore), his friend Benvolio (your right, Adhonay Soares da Silva), and his other friend Mercutio (Martí Fernández Paixà). Romeo and Benvolio are members of the Montague clan. Mercutio is related to the Duke, but the runs with the Montagues (who dress mostly in orange) for fun:
The Montagues are at war with another clan, the Capulets, who usually dress in green and yellow. Lord Capulet’s position is threatened because he has no son. His strongest knight is his wife’s nephew, Tybalt. But Capulet has a beautiful 13-year-old daughter named Juliet. Lord Capulet has negotiated a marriage between Juliet and Paris, another Knight who can bolster the defenses of the Capulet family. As the story begins, a fight between the knights of the two clans breaks out in the city square. The Duke arrives to put down this riot in the streets! There’s nothing wrong with the sets in this show, but I think they look dated by today’s standards. Some of them show ancient fold creases and marks that suggest they have been in service since 1962:
The Duke orders Romeo and Tybalt (Robert Robinson) to shake hands glumly in a forced truce:
On the left below is Marcia Haydée, Juliet’s nurse. 55 years before this shot was made, Haydée created the role of Juliet with Cranko! Juliet (Elisa Badenes) is learning that she will soon be married to Paris:
The Dance of the Knights at Juliet’s coming out party. Romeo and his pals crash the party because Romeo wants to talk to a girl named Rosaline:
The Capulets beam with pride as Juliet dances with Paris:
But he never loved who loved not at first sight:
Romeo and Juliet can’t stay away from each other as Paris looks on in dismay and Tybalt with fury at what this flirtation between Juliet and Romeo are doing to the plans of the Capulet clan:
From the balcony scene. Juliet knows well that Romeo is a Montague, but love is blind:
Cranko eases the dramatic pressure a bit with carnival fun in the streets:
Friar Lawrence marries the couple in secrecy in hopes that he can help broker an end to the feud between the families:
Mercutio is leading the merriment in the streets:
The carnival leads to more showing off of swordsmanship. The unpredictable Mercutio gets run through by Tybalt, almost by accident:
Romeo loses it and kills Tybalt, his wife’s most important cousin:
The grief of Lady Capulet. She can’t fathom the strange force that seems to be confounding her at every turn. But there is much more grief to come:
The lovers have one night as husband and wife. Now Romeo must flee Verona for his life:
Only 3 people know that Romeo and Juliet are married. The patient, gentle Paris tries again to connect to Juliet:
Juliet visits Friar Lawrence again. He gives her a sleeping potion that will make her appears to be dead. Her body will be laid out in the tomb where Romeo can rescue her and take her away:
Juliet’s friends will wake her with lilies. But everyone is stunned when she is found seemingly dead:
Friar Lawrence sends Romeo an e-mail explaining that Juliet is just asleep. But the e-mail gets into Romeo’s Junk File by mistake. When Romeo visits the tomb, he believes Juliet to be dead. He takes poison rather than live on without her, and you know then what Juliet does after she awakes:
We now have 8 Blu-rays of R&J in ballet form, plus a new Matthew Bourne production on order. We are working on a R&J ballet “shoot-out” to pick the best recordings. So lately I’ve been overdosing on Juliet. But when I recently reviewed this Cranko recording for the first time, I felt myself choking up again—it’s that good. I think the Prokofiev music is harder to play than the Tchaikovsky ballets. But you don’t get hired by the Stuttgart State Theater Orchestra unless you can play at the Prokofiev level. So the orchestra under James Tuggle sounds completely authentic and the SQ is fine. All the dancers at Stuttgart know all the roles and also how to act and swordfight this to perfection. The energy level overcomes any slight reservation about old sets and costumes. And remember: this version is where it all started in the West. Michael Beyer might be getting a tired of recording R&J, but he does a fine job here coping with all the fast action and maintaining good PQ for 2017. His video pace is faster than we would like, but this seems to be unavoidable for R&J. So now we have another A+ R&J.
Here’s the official clip:
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