Petipa's Romeo & Juliet

[Amy Reusch]

Unfortunately, I couldn't go to this evening's performance at UConn's Jorgensen Auditorium by Russian National Ballet of Petipa's Romeo & Juliet set to Tchaikovsky's music of the same name, but I'm wondering what it might be. The photo in this interview : http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20110331/ENT/103310319/1017/Russian-ballet-company-stages-new-take-Romeo-Juliet- isn't very enlightening... Wikipedia's Marius Petipa entry doesn't mention it, although it's an extensive entry. Ballet Master Alexander Daev doesn't inspire confidence when he says "The full-length "Romeo and Juliet" ballet is set to the music of Sergei Prokofiev. Our company's version is the only one I know that is set to Tchaikovsky's music.", but I suppose Antony Tudor's work might be less known in Russia...

Is it a real Petipa derivitive ballet or it all a ruse? Is it mostly Radchencko?

[Mme. Hermine]

i don't know. but ruth page set a version to that music in the 1960's so he's wrong there. (starts at 1:54)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7x-VJUDmWQ

[emilienne]

It is entirely Radchenko. I posted a "review" here.

[Natalia]

It is entirely Radchenko. I posted a "review" here.

You just said the magic word: RADCHENKO!

The same 'gang' that brought us this gem of a "Non-Stars of the Bolshoi" in Rockville, MD, a month ago:

[Amy Reusch]

How could I possibly have forgotten when I so thoroughly enjoyed your review the first time, Emilienne? I laughed just as much again. Thank you!

[Amy Reusch]

Someone tells me I'm mistaken about Tudor's choice of composers... Thank you little bird!

I always thought he'd used Tchaikovsky's score... here it was Delius all along: "Walk to the Paradise Garden". Would love to see that some day...

[cubanmiamiboy]

"...ideas for an earlier ballet set to Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" symphonic poem and his "Sixth Symphony" were discovered recently in the archives of the Bolshoi Theatre. Elena Radchencko, a former Bolshoi principal dancer who is now Russian Classical Ballet's artistic director, found the 1893 sketches by legendary choreographer Marius Petipa and decided to stage this "Romeo and Juliet" for her company's current U.S. tour."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JjTgltNY1Y

[Natalia]

Interesting note, cubanmiamiboy.

The video appears to be from a different production, ca 1989, by another Moscow-based private troupe headed by Victor Smirnov-Golovanov. I saw it in Cairo in 1990. Hard to forget.

[bart]

The Tchaikovsky score, a big favorite of mine in my teen years, is so evocative that I have sometimes wondered why it was not used for a ballet. Possibly it's a bit too droopy and broody to sustain interesting choreography. On the other hand, , though there are wonderful romantic and even rhythmic sections here and there that would appear marvelous for dance.

For those of you who have seen this version or others using the Tchaikovsky , what do you think about the Tchaikovsky score as dance music. . CAN this score work as the basis for a coherent, danceable telling of the Romeo and Juliet story?.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Interesting note, cubanmiamiboy.

The video appears to be from a different production, ca 1989, by another Moscow-based private troupe headed by Victor Smirnov-Golovanov. I saw it in Cairo in 1990. Hard to forget.

Yes, Natasha. I put it because it contradicts Daev's claim that theirs is the "only" troupe that has/had used Tchaikovsky's score...

I'm also a fan of this music-(I own the Bernstein box of T's 6 Symphonies plus Hamlet, 1812, Francesca de Rimini and R&J, which is included in the Symphony # 3 CD, hence becoming the most played of them all... ).

[Natalia]

To me, it was more 'evocative poem' than narrative ballet.

I just realized that the Victor Smirnov-Golovanov & Natalia Rizhenko version is also available on commercial DVD:

http://www.amazon.com/KIROV-STARS-Shakespeare-Dance-Trilogy/dp/B001M9ELUS ...but it's an odd outdoor filming that doesn't quite capture what it looks like in the theater, as does the clip provided by cubanmiamiboy.

[Natalia]

....... I put it because it contradicts Radchenko's claim that hers is the "only" troupe that has/had used Tchaikovsky's score...

....

Like everything else coming from the Radchenko 'press office'...'Bolshoi Stars' and the rest.

[Mme. Hermine]

well i liked ruth page's pretty much, and she got a lot more of the characters in there than one might expect, but i do recall a critic referring to it as "Ruth Page's Freeze-Dried Romeo and Juliet" - well.

[emilienne]

For those of you who have seen this version or others using the Tchaikovsky , what do you think about the Tchaikovsky score as dance music. . CAN this score work as the basis for a coherent, danceable telling of the Romeo and Juliet story?.

I enjoy listening to the Tchaikovsky occasionally, but I think it too impressionistic and *short* to sustain a narrative scenario.

The Radchenko presentation may have traumatized me for Eternity (I take bets on how long that will be), but it did a brilliant job of illustrating the ills of making the audience rely entirely on the printed libretto (which was, incidentally, wrong) to understand the dance action (what there was of it) on stage. At that point they should have thrown out the scenario and present excerpts, or make the piece plotless, so that I could have played Choreographic Mad Libs while watching young people throw themselves at each other.