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Music by
Sergey Prokofiev
Choreography
by
Kenneth Macmillan
Staging by
Monica Mason
Designed by
Nicholas
Georgiadis
Orchestra
of the
Royal Opera House
conducted by
Boris Gruzin
Juliet
Alina Cojocaru
Romeo
Steven McRae
Mercutio
Jose Martin
Tybalt
Bennet Gartside
Benvolio
Yohei Sasaki
Paris
Johannes
Stepanek
Nurse
Sandra Conley
Three Harlots
Francesca
Filpi
Laura Morera
Sian Murphy
Artists of
the
Royal Ballet
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Royal
Opera House
Covent Garden
16 Oct - 25 Nov 2007 |
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Steven
McRae replaced the injured
Johan Kobborg in this performance,
and for all his slightness
and boyishness gave a highly
creditable account of himself.
He is a neat dancer, with
a pure line and a wonderful
crispness and accuracy of
movement; there is art as
well as technique in his execution
which promises fair. Once
or twice early on there was
a wobble in his lifting, despite
the feather-lightness of Alina
Cojocaru, but as the evening
progressed he grew in assurance.
For classical leading roles
a dancer has to project size,
confidence, charisma, absorbing
space on the stage by mere
presence; this is a function
of attitude, although it is
helped by physical breadth
and height; so a slightly-built
dancer has to expand himself
psychologically into the audience's
perception of him as the principle
man on stage; this is something
McRae is sure to be able to
do.
The delight of the evening
was unquestionably and, in
the best sense, predictably
Alina Cojocaru. This joyous
ballerina transforms herself
into a young girl, playful
and inexperienced, emotionally
instinctive and as quicksilver
in her responses, vulnerable,
passionate, quintessentially
feminine. There is no need
to remark on the lightness
and fleetness, the suppleness
and airiness, of her dancing;
it is exquisite, a deep pleasure
to watch, and the expression
of a remarkable dancerly sensibility.
We live in good times balletically,
spoiled with talent on the
Covent Garden stage.
This applies, as always, to
Jose Martin, such a mainstay
in the supporting roles, as
are Bennet Gartside and Yohei
Sasaki. They are stars; in
any lesser company they would
take top billing as such.
Gartside was a brooding, menacing
Tybalt, a bully, always on
the edge of violence. Sasaki
partnered Martin excellently;
it is striking how much acting
talent runs through the company,
perfectly answering to the
theatricality of Macmillan's
choreography, which with a
scalpel filets its origin
and shapes it perfectly round
Prokofiev's score.
If there is one fault with
this rendition of the tale,
it wholly leaves out a reconciliation
scene, which in Shakespeare's
version is integral to its
meaning. Knowing this, the
abruptness of the ballet's
ending is a truncation. Balletically,
of course, it works well,
because a double suicide intermitted
by Juliet's awakening does
not lend itself to fulsome
treatment in dance. Romeo's
stabbing of Paris is a wasted
gesture in the ballet; some
sharp choreographic talent
might potentiate Macmillan
here by finding a way to reconfigure
the end by ridding us of Paris's
murder and engineering a reconciliation
‚ if need be, Lanchbery-style,
by reintroducing part of the
ball music and the themes
for the opposed families as
a coda.
Still, Romeo and Juliet makes
for a deeply satisfying night
in Covent Garden, especially
as so ably and in Cojocaru's
case so beautifully danced.
As always, the orchestra was
on good form; Boris Gruzin's
empathy with Prokofiev's intentions
seemed complete.
AC Grayling |
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