Classical Ballet Sergei Prokofiev "Romeo and Juliet" ballet by John Cranko World famous Bolshoi Ballet and Opera theatre (established 1776) - Marvellous Main (Historic) Stage
Schedule for Sergei Prokofiev "Romeo and Juliet" ballet by John Cranko 2022
Composer: Sergei Prokofiev Choreography: Yuri Grigorovich Costume Designer: Jurgen Rose Artistic Director: Maestro Yuri Grigorovich Conductor: Andrei Anikhanov Choreography: John Cranko Ballet company: Stuttgart Ballet
Orchestra: Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra
World premiere: 11 January 1940, Kirov Theatre, Leningrad, USSR
Premiere of this production: 2 May 2013
Romeo and
Juliet is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William
Shakespeare's play Romeo
and Juliet. It is one of the most enduringly popular ballets. Music from the
ballet was extracted by Prokofiev as three suites for orchestra and as a piano
work. Based on a synopsis created by Adrian Piotrovsky (who first
suggested the subject to Prokofiev) and Sergey Radlov, the ballet in its
original form was completed by Prokofiev in September 1935, on commission by the
Kirov Ballet, since when he first presented the music to the Bolshoi Ballet that
year, they claimed it was "undanceable". The original version had a "happy"
ending, but was never publicly mounted, partly due to increased fear and caution
in the musical and theatrical community in the aftermath of the two notorious Pravda editorials
criticising Shostakovich and other "degenerate modernists" including Piotrovsky.
The conductor Yuri Fayer met with Prokofiev frequently during the writing of the
music, and he strongly urged the composer to revert to the traditional ending.
Fayer went on to conduct the first performance of the ballet at the Bolshoi
Theatre.
Suites of the ballet
music were heard in Moscow and the United States, but the full ballet premiered
in the Mahen Theatre, Brno (then in Czechoslovakia, now in the Czech Republic),
on 30 December 1938. It is better known today from the significantly revised
version that was first presented at the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad on 11 January
1940, with choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky and with Galina Ulanova and
Konstantin Sergeyev in the lead roles.
In 1962 John Cranko's choreography of Romeo and Juliet for the Stuttgart
Ballet helped the company achieve a worldwide reputation. It had its American
premiere in 1969.
In 1965 choreographer
Sir Kenneth MacMillan's production for the Royal Ballet premiered at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden. Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev brought new life
to the characters, as did the set and costume designs by Nicholas Georgiadis;
Fonteyn, considered to be near retirement, embarked upon a rejuvenated career
with a partnership with Nureyev.
In 1977, Rudolf Nureyev
created a new version of Romeo and Juliet for the London Festival Ballet,
today's English National Ballet. He performed the lead role of Romeo, with
British ballerina Patricia Ruanne creating the role of Juliet. As a partnership,
they would tour the production internationally, and it continues to be a popular
ballet in the ENB repertoire, with its most recent revival in 2010 being staged
by Patricia Ruanne and Frederic Jahn, of the original 1977 cast.
The Joffrey Ballet
presented the first American production in its 1984–1985 season, including
performances in New York City at the New York State Theater and in Washington,
D.C. at the Kennedy Center.
In 1985 choreographer
Laszlo Seregi's production premiered at the Hungarian National Ballet,
Budapest.
In 2007 Peter Martins
made Romeo + Juliet
on New York City Ballet to the Prokofiev music.
On July 4, 2008, with
the approval of the Prokofiev family and permission from the Russian State
Archive, the original Prokofiev score was given its world premiere. Musicologist
Simon Morrison, author of The People's Artist: Prokofiev's Soviet Years,
unearthed the original materials in the Moscow archives, obtained permissions,
and reconstructed the entire score. Mark Morris created the choreography for the
production. The Mark Morris Dance Group premiered the work at the Fisher Center
for the Performing Arts at Bard College in New York state. The production
subsequently began a year-long tour to include Berkeley, Norfolk, London, New
York, and Chicago.
In 2011, the National
Ballet of Canada premiered a new choreography of Romeo and Juliet by Alexei
Ratmansky in Toronto, with plans to take it on tour in Western Canada in early
2012
Photos:
Schedule for Sergei Prokofiev "Romeo and Juliet" ballet by John Cranko 2022
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