Romeo & Juliet
It’s Valentine’s Day so how could we not have Romeo and Juliet this week?
Major new classical ballets are rare and usually take years between commission and performance. Kenneth MacMillan was given only five months to create his first full-scale three-act work to the music of Sergei Prokoviev, for the Royal Ballet in 1964. He made it for Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable to dance at its premiere.
MacMillan, Seymour and Gable endlessly discussed their ideas about the characters as MacMillan choreographed the key pas de deux in each act – his starting point around which the rest of the ballet would be built. He and Seymour envisaged Juliet as a headstrong, passionate girl who makes all the crucial decisions: the secret marriage, in defiance of her parents’ wishes; taking Friar Lawrence’s potion; joining Romeo in death. Gable’s Romeo was a young man swept off his feet by love, dancing in dizzy exultation.
At the last minute the American impressario who was organising the Royal Ballet’s tour of the US insisted that its first performance should be danced by Fonteyn and Nureyev because they were a bigger boxoffice draw. Seymour and Gable were relegated to second cast. This betrayal led to Christopher Gable giving up ballet altogether. MacMillan was furious and threatened to withdraw the ballet but Lynn Seymour persuaded him to allow it to be performed with Fonteyn and Nureyev.
It was, and remains, one of the greatest successes in the Royal Ballet’s repertoire. On opening night, February 9th 1965, Fonteyn and Nureyev took 43 curtain calls, eventually needing the safety curtain to descend in order to encourage the audience to leave the theatre.
And here it is, without Fonteyn and Nureyev or Seymour and Gable, a great classic ballet that reveals itself with each pairing of new lovers. This is the latest Royal Ballet production of Kenneth MacMillan’s masterpiece, made in 2022 and starring Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambḗ in the title roles.
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The post Ruth Leon recommends.. Romeo and Juliet – Royal Ballet appeared first on Slippedisc.
