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Romeo et Juliette, Seattle 1 Feb-10 Feb; NYC 15-16


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This is the latest press release, describing special events surrounding "Romeo et Juliette," which the company will perform in Seattle 1-3 and 7-10 February and at City Center in NYC 15-16 February.

Pacific Northwest Ballet Presents Two Special Events in Conjunction with Seattle/New York Runs of
Roméo et Juliette

SEATTLE, WA
– In January 2008, Pacific Northwest Ballet brought Jean-Christophe Maillot’s masterful
Roméo et Juliette
to Seattle for its west coast premiere, making PNB the first American company to perform the work. Maillot’s contemporary interpretation of the great love story has been hailed throughout the world as "one of the most beautiful ballets adapted from Shakespeare's masterpiece that can be seen today" (Scènes Magazine), and became an audience favorite and a signature work in PNB’s repertory.
Roméo et Juliette
returns to the McCaw Hall stage for nine performances (February 1-10) as PNB continues its 40th Anniversary Season.

In conjunction with these performances, PNB is offering two very special presentations:

BUILDING A BALLET:
ROMÉO ET JULIETTE
AT PNB

Saturday, January 19, 3:00 pm

The Phelps Center, 301 Mercer Street, Seattle 98109

Learn from PNB artistic staff how the company builds a production from the ground up, featuring an insider’s view of the construction of PNB’s own scenery and costumes for
Roméo et Juliette
. This 90-minute presentation features PNB costume shop manager Larae Theige Hascall, technical director Norbert Herriges, and principal dancer Carla Körbes and will include a presentation of costumes, props and design sketches. Tickets to BUILDING A BALLET are $20 each, available through the PNB Box Office. Note: Space is limited for this event.

NEW YORK TOUR PREVIEW

Tuesday, February 5, 5:30 pm

The Phelps Center, 301 Mercer Street, Seattle 98109

Don’t miss this 90-minute preview of PNB’s upcoming tour to New York’s City Center of Music and Drama. The City Center engagement – featuring an evening of Balanchine works (
Agon, Apollo
and
Concerto Barocco
) and three performances of
Roméo et Juliette
– marks PNB’s first full-company appearance in New York since 1996, and the New York debut of the PNB Orchestra under the direction of music director/principal conductor Emil de Cou. Tickets to the NEW YORK TOUR PREVIEW are $20 each, available through the PNB Box Office.

In addition to these two special events, don’t miss the
free
BALLET PREVIEW
on
Tuesday, January 29 at 12:00 pm. PNB Education Programs Manager
Doug Fullington
will offer a free lunch-hour lecture providing insights about
Roméo et Juliette
complete with video excerpts. 12:00 noon at the Central Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth Avenue in downtown Seattle.
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Tickets to this 2/9 performance were snapped up very quickly after PNB 1st announced the legendary Pantastico/Postelwaite guest cast. There are tickets left for this 2/9 evening performance, but only marginal seats. OTOH, seeing other casts is enhanced due to PNB's addition of 2 "extra" performances, both matinees. One is on the Sunday of the 1 week, and the second is on the Saturday of the 2nd week. Since there are no subscribers for these performances, there are lots of good seats.

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"Agon" will be performed in the season closer, "Director's Choice", 31 May-1 June, 6-9 June.

Principal casting for the Seattle performances of "Romeo et Juliette" has been posted to the PNB website; as always, casting is subject to change:

http://www.pnb.org/S...liette/#Casting

Kaori Nakamura and James Moore reprise their partnership in the leads. Carla Korbes' new Romeo is Seth Orza, who also performs Tybalt twice second weekend. A new couple, who performed the "Balcony Pas de Deux" in the "Love Stories" rep last season, Lesley Rausch and Jerome Tisserand, are scheduled to dance the second Saturday matinee performance (9 Feb 2pm). William Lin-Yee debuts as Friar Lawrence in that matinee; Karel Cruz is cast for all other performances. Noelani Pantastico and Lucien Postlewaite perform the lead in the second Saturday evening performance (9 Feb 7:30pm). Sharing the role of Nurse are Rachel Foster, Margaret Mullin, and Carrie Imler.

Here are the cast lists for both weeks in Excel spreadsheet form, for those who wish to download them:

R et J performance casting week 1.xls

R et J performance casting week 2.xls

There's so much to look forward to!

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PNB posted a new video called "On Being Friar Lawrence," which features Karel Cruz. The two acolytes at the beginning of the video are Andrew Bartee (left, with red curls) and Jerome Tisserand (right with dark hair). Later in the video, Carla Korbes is seen as Juliette, solo, with Cruz, and with her Romeo, Seth Orza.

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"Agon" will be performed in the season closer, "Director's Choice", 31 May-1 June, 6-9 June.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

My most favorite ballet......finally! Even tho I knew PNB was doing it in Victoria this year, it never occured to me that we would get it on our stage. I'm a happy man!

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"Agon" will be performed in the season closer, "Director's Choice", 31 May-1 June, 6-9 June.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

My most favorite ballet......finally! Even tho I knew PNB was doing it in Victoria this year, it never occured to me that we would get it on our stage. I'm a happy man!

Indeed -- I'm thrilled as well. It's been several years since they performed Agon here.

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PNB posted a new video called "On Being Friar Lawrence," which features Karel Cruz. The two acolytes at the beginning of the video are Andrew Bartee (left, with red curls) and Jerome Tisserand (right with dark hair). Later in the video, Carla Korbes is seen as Juliette, solo, with Cruz, and with her Romeo, Seth Orza.

Around 1:35 I think it's Seth Rollofson as one of the acolytes, and around 1:40 isn't that Laura Gilbreath as Juliette? She's not performing this time out, but perhaps she's learning it now?

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Definitely Rollofson as an acolyte, but I thought that was Gilbreath doing Lady Capulet. I couldn't recognize who was in the red tights or leg warmers practicing Juliet behind Carla Korbes.

I don't know the choreography well enough to tell if the little slice of Gilbreath we saw was from Juliette or Lady C (which is doing twice in the first weekend), but I'm very curious to know who's learning the role now with the possibility of performing it the next time out.

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Need to work on review, but just to let everyone know -- big drama at the matinee today (Sunday). Benjamin Griffiths has been dancing all the Benvolios (they had someone to cover and then he was injured), which is pretty risky. They do this from time to time, and usually dodge the consequences, but not today -- Griffiths hurt his foot in class this morning.

So Eric Hipolyto started learning it, but it's a very complex part, full of partnering (male and female), fighting, stage business and traffic patterns. Fortunately, a group from Monte Carlo was coming into town this afternoon, and among them was Raphael Bouchard (sp?), who performs Benvolio regularly. I don't know how they finessed the work permits, but Hipolyto went on in the first scene, and by the time Benvolio was supposed to make another entrance Bouchard was there. He dances a slightly different version of the role, and it was fascinating to see the changes, but in general it was just an incredible relief. Seth Orza and Carla Korbes were dancing the leads, and did a wonderful job, but I can only imagine the backstage hullabaloo.

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I didn't give a full review from this performance, but to expand on my earlier comments (for the Kaori Nakamura / James Moore cast). The orchestra made Prokofiev roar, gleam and tenderly reach out for your heart. I didn't attend the pre-performance lecture, but my seatmate did. She related that the PNB orchestra will travel to NYC. The lecturer stated this is cheaper than hiring an NYC orchestra (go figure!).

I'm not a huge fan of Batkhurel Bold's acting skills, but he was well cast as the "heavy" playing Tybalt. Being serious and playing on his physicality worked well for the character. I thought he was particularly menacing and you could see his anger building as Benvolio (Ben Griffiths) and Mercutio (Jonathoan Porretta owns this role) played practical jokes on him. Their scenes really show the family rivalries - essentially they are hooligans egging each other on, and things get out of control. Tybalt's death scene was the most engrossing moment of the show. The joking becomes insults, then pushing, then punching, and finally death and retribution death. Then the grief dancing by Lindsi Dec and the corps just blows the audience away. In fact the audience was entirely silent until the end of each act, there was no applause after short solos. I sat near some Russians who told me they expected a traditional version, and were disappointed. But the rest of the audience was pretty happy.

I think William Lin-Yee is miscast as Paris, he lacks the "princely nobility" to carry off the cookie cutter Mr. Right that Juliet rejects and Lady Capulet flirts with. Even A++++ actress Meryl Streep couldn't pull off a latin american teenager in "House of the Spirits". Lin-Yee is a wonderful comic actor, but this role should be been cast by someone else (Joshua Grant comes to mind).

Karel Cruz is growing into Friar Laurence, but his movements lack the total commitment, strength and anguish that made Olivier Wevers so memorable. Before he retired, I was rather hoping Stanko Milov would get a shot at this role if it became available. Margaret Mullin was very sweet as nurse, but she lacks the comic ditziness that others bring to the role. Kylee Kitchen's Rosaline was sensual and had fun with her role.

I sat on the orchestra floor, 3rd row on the left side, which gave me wonderful sightlines for the acting, but I think I missed seeing some of the lighting design and corps dance formations that are visible from a higher perspective. I wish I had more funding to see all the performances, but this is my 4th or 5th viewing since PNB brought the production to Seattle in 2006.

For anyone seeing the show in NYC, you will get full value with this cast.

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