Romeo and Juliet ballet. Music by Prokofiev. Libretto by Leonid Lavrovsky, Adrian Piotrovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, and Sergei Radlov. Choreography by Vyacheslav Samodurov (assisted by Klara Dovzhik) in 2019 at the Ural Opera Ballet at the Ural Opera Theater in Ekaterinburg. Stars Ekaterina Sapogova (Juliet), Alexandr Merkushev (Romeo); Igor Bulytsyn (Mercutio); Gleb Sageev (Benvolio), Vadim Eremin (Tybalt), Victor Mekhanoshin (Lord Capulet), Elena Safonova (Lady Capulet), Nadezhda Shamshurina (Nurse), Rafaela Hernandes Morel (Rosaline), Andrei Veshkurtsev (Rosaline’s Suitor), Maxim Kletkovkin (Paris), Ivan Sobrovin (Friar Lawrence), Anton Guzeev (The Duke), and Sofiya Tyupa (he Duke’s companion). Additional dancers are:
Molls: Anastasia Bagaeva, Anna Domke, and Anastasia Rakitina
Folk dance soloists: Miki Nishiguchi, Kyonsun Pak, Alexei Seliverstov, and Tomoha Terada
Gavotte: Anna Kamchatnaya, Yulia Kruminsh, Renata Nizamutdinov; Anastasia Kerzhemankina, Gleb Alferov, Alexei Seliverstov, Mikhail Husutin, Tomoha Terada
Pavel Klinichev conducts the Ural Opera Ballet Orchestra. Sets by Anthony MacIlwaine; costumes by Irena Belousova; lighting by Simon Bennison. Directed for TV by Denis Caïozzi; produced by François Duplat. Released 2020, disc has PCM stereo sound. Grade: C
Russia is the second most important opera market in the world (after Germany), and they love ballet there too. The Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow is the biggest ballet operation of all, and we have 2 extraordinary Blu-ray ballet discs from Bolshoi published by Bel Air. The Ural Opera Ballet is located in Ekaterinburg, the 4th largest city in Russia, and it is one of 4 ballet companies in Russia that gets special “federal” support. So Bel Air is trying to introduce the Ural Ballet to the West.
You may have never visited Ekaterinburg, so here are two photos of the beautiful town center and a view of the Ural Opera Theater:
Just as Russian seems far away and isolated from the West, Ekaterinburg seems to be far away from Moscow and Saint Petersburg on the other side of the Ural Mountains. So we should expect that the Ural Opera Ballet will do things a bit differently from anyone else. We usually exclude stereo-only recordings of classical ballet from this website, but we made an exception here because we are so curious about what’s happening in Russian ballet.
Our first screenshot below shows the people of Verona dancing in the streets. They are all wearing black and white instead of colorful peasant costumes. That’s because this is the original Leonid Lavrovsky version of the Romeo and Juliet ballet to the Prokofiev music. This first played in Russia after Stalin’s “Great Terror” and during World War II. Lavrovsky depicts the people of Verona as members of the proletariat. Shakespeare’s story of feuding tribes is recast as a tale of progressive youth rejecting the old feudal ways. This is what you had to do in those days to work in the theater and stay alive:
The colorful Gypsies are gone and replaced with three girls from the assembly lines who make extra money on the weekends. You can tell they are different because they wear their bras outside their tops. Note the red set with several rows of balconies. This complicated structure must have been originally made for some other production—I can’t imagine building this from scratch to be Verona. But however it came to be, it’s going to be the background for this entire production because it’s too elaborate and heavy to quickly move.
I can’t ID the bra girls correctly. But Romeo (Alexandr Merkushev) is dancing center, Mercutio (Igor Bulytsyn) is on your left, and Benvolio (Gleb Sageev) is on the right. Now these three are in the play part of the Montague clan, but the Montagues don’t exist in this ballet. Our three cocky lads are just workers who will contend with the Lords:
There is a Duke (Anton Guzeev), whom we see next below on the first balcony. The workers, I think, have been drinking too much and are fighting over who gets which girl for the weekend. These workers obviously need some discipline of the sort that could have been provided by the Communists prior to 1991:
Next we meet Tybalt (Vadim Eremin). I think he is a worker who has sold out and become an agent of the Lords. There are a lot of faces worked into the extravagant costumes in this show. I’m pretty sure that any Russian would instantly know whose face in on Tybalt’s shirt, but I haven’t a clue:
Now we meet Lord Capulet (Victor Mekhanoshin), Lady Capulet (Elena Safonova on your left), Juliet (Ekaterina Sapogova), and Juliet’s nurse (Nadezhda Shamshurina) on your right. This is a small company, so they don’t have older character actors to play parts of the elders—everybody looks about the same age. In this screenshot, Juliet learns that she will soon marry Paris, a Lord selected for her by her parents. This being a revolutionary ballet, Juliet will resist this idea:
Maybe the costumes are the most exciting thing about this production. Irena Belousova found a run of richly colored fabrics covered with detailed drawings, fantastic depictions of flora and fauna, realistic prints of historical events or themes—all mixed in with photorealistic pictures of, I take it, famous Russian faces. I think you could take these costumes and mount them in a museum as an example of modern art:
As you can see below, the costumes for the men are similar:
The womens’ skirts are very long. In the shot below the women spin rapidly in unison and wrap themselves up tightly against their men—never saw that move before:
And when Paris and Juliet enter the ballroom, the women are lifted so as to present their long skirts aggressively in a remarkable display of conspicuous consumption:
Well, Romeo crashed the party because he wanted to talk to Rosiline, but now he has fallen for Juliet instead:
This next view would be called the “balcony scene” except it’s just a courtyard tryst. I think this shot shows Juliet’s distress at the fact that she, the daughter of a Lord, is falling for a mere worker. But she is ready to join the proletariat for love:
And now choreographer Samodurov gives us a real kiss just like a steamy Hollywood display of ardour:
Romeo and Juliet go to the cathedral downtown to marry, and we see this atmospheric shot:
Tybalt can’t allow one of the lumpenproletarians to mess with the daughter of a Lord. Trying to restore order, he kills Mercutio, and now Romeo wants revenge. The sword fighting in this show is very good. But here videographer Denis Caïozzi gets the angle wrong and it’s obvious that Romeo’s sword passed between Tybalt’s torso and arm. And the girl looking on might be accused of over-acting. Details, details.
Romeo flees the scene to gets to Juliet’s bedroom undetected. They couldn’t find a way to completely cover the city balcony set:
Juliet’s bed here has to be the cheapest-looking prop ever. And both lovers just hop right on top of the bed to embrace. Do not try this at home:
This Romeo should keep his shirt on. Did people have tattoos in old Verona?
Juliet pretended to agree to marry Paris, then took the sleeping potion:
Now we see how the lovers could dance on the bed. Just flick off the sheet and you have a nice tomb:
But if you’re going to make a video, at least give the tomb a fresh coat of paint for the high-def camera:
Why would anyone use the Lavrovsky version of Romeo and Juliet other than out of inertia? Would it be time for the folks in Ekaterinburg to update the Cranko or MacMillan version into something fresh? Perhaps the weakest thing about this title, is, alas, the Ural Opera Ballet Orchestra. I don’t think the musicians in that orchestra are up to playing Prokofiev—it just sounds like it’s too hard for them. And as the musicians struggle, the SQ isn’t all that great either. The production needs new sets, but the costumes are interesting. I think the dancing and sword-fighting would be good enough if you could improve the story line. PQ is fine and I didn’t notice any bad motion blur problems. To sum up then: this production is not competitive in the international market with the titles we have from the big houses. The correct grade is probably a D. But Ekaterinburg is such a pretty place and the young people dancing there are trying hard. Let’s call it a good start toward greater things with a C grade.
Here’s an official trailer. Note the face that appear 6 times on the front of Romeo’s shirt. I hate to admit I can’t figure out who the face belonged to:
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