Romeo and Juliet - multiple versions

[sandik]

11 hours ago, Helene said:

Kent Stowell did a beautiful version named "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet" to a Tchaikovsky score he and Stewart Kershaw (then PNB Music Director) developed from existing scores.  I'll never forget Fleming Halby's Friar Lawrence performing the marriage scene to the Preghiera movement of "Mozartiana."  Mime in the old school Danish tradition.

 

For many young dancers at PNB, this was their first foray into full-length dramatic ballets, and it showed off the company beautifully.

 

It was indeed a treat to see Halby in that role.  I loved the opening crowd scenes of this version (rather like the Smuin from the above conversation) where a funeral procession devolved into a brawl.

[miliosr]

9 hours ago, Amy Reusch said:

Miliosr... doesn't the length make it kind of an odd duck for a revival project (do patrons expect a full evening for an expensive revival)?  I would love to see Tudor's take on Shakespeare...

When Kevin McKenzie took charge at ABT in the 1990s, he said he wanted to present Frederick Ashton's The Dream, Jose Limon's The Moor's Pavane and Antony Tudor's Romeo and Juliet as his dream (no pun intended) bill. Obviously, that never came to pass (although McKenzie did program a version of it later on with The Dream and [I believe] Alexei Ratmansky's The Tempest.)

 

In any event, I understand your point that, in this day and age of the multi-act ballet spectacles (whether it's the too-long Frankenstein at San Francisco Ballet or the Christian Lacroix overdominated Midsummer Night's Dream at the Paris Opera Ballet), a longer one-act is a tougher sell. Nevertheless, I cling to the idea that the right company (say, Sarasota Ballet) that doesn't specialize in opera house spectacles could pull off the Tudor Romeo and Juliet if the financial resources existed to revive it.

 

9 hours ago, Helene said:

I thought the Tudor was postponed (or "postponed") for so long so that it's like "Cotillon":  no one remembers it enough to revive the whole thing.

The hour is growing late to revive the whole thing. It's been 40 years since it was in regular repertory at ABT. There was a point where many of the 70s-era cast members were still living -- Fernando Bujones, Carla Fracci, Natalia Makarova, Ivan Nagy and John Prinz -- and, presumably, were willing to contribute to any revival. But Bujones and Nagy are dead now and 40 years is a long time to go without setting down people's memories on actual human bodies. That being said, someone must remember at least parts of it since ABT staged a small excerpt of it in 2008 for the Tudor centennial and New York Theatre Ballet just staged an excerpt from it. I refuse to give up hope!!!!!

Edited April 6, 2017 by miliosr

[JMcN]

Ashton (London Festival Ballet - now ENB)

MacMillan (both RB & BRB)

Morricone/Gable (Northern Ballet - my favourite)

Cranko (Scottish Ballet)

Robert North (Scottish Ballet)

Pastor (Scottish Ballet)

Derek Deane (ENB - both "in the round" and proscenium)

Nureyev

Neumeier (RDB)

Maillot (Geneva Ballet and Northern Ballet)

Van Dantzig (?) Dutch National Ballet in late 1980s

Royal New Zealand Ballet early 2000s - sorry can't remember choreographer 

[Jane Simpson]

The RNZB Romeo was by Christopher Hampson - a fairly small-scale production to allow for touring, but I rather liked it so far as I remember.

[Lynette H]

6 hours ago, Jane Simpson said:

The RNZB Romeo was by Christopher Hampson - a fairly small-scale production to allow for touring, but I rather liked it so far as I remember.

 

I rather liked that version too. I thought the final detail (Romeo realises after he has drunk the poison that Juliet is stirring after all) was very touching. 

 

A few more for the list, seen here in London

 

Mark Morris for his own company (a female Mercutio, I think)

Ratmansksy for National Ballet of Canada

Mats Ek for Swedish National Ballet (decidedly odd. Best thing in it was Ana Laguna as the Nurse).

There was a production which was allegedly of the Ashton version at the Coilseum produced by Schaufuss with Osipova and Vasiliev a couple of years ago, with just a handful of dancers. 

 

I didn't get to see Cathy Marston's Juliet and Romeo for Bern Ballet when it came here but there's a clue in the title that it wasn't a conventional approach. 

 

[Mashinka]

I liked the version by Angelin Prelocaj, most didn't though.

 

Valery Panov made an excellent version in Bonn with some fabulous male dancing, especially for Tybalt who made his entrance jumping from the top of an arch over the stage, quite a drop, still sticks in the memory.

 

Personal favourite is Vladimir Vasiliev's, so true to Shakespeare's text.

[sandik]

 

Wow, this is getting to be a fantastic list.  Would it be possible for you all to say a bit about a couple of the less-well known productions, for those of us who probably won't get the chance to see them?

 

11 hours ago, JMcN said:

Ashton (London Festival Ballet - now ENB)

MacMillan (both RB & BRB)

Morricone/Gable (Northern Ballet - my favourite)

Cranko (Scottish Ballet)

Robert North (Scottish Ballet)

Pastor (Scottish Ballet)

Derek Deane (ENB - both "in the round" and proscenium)

Nureyev

Neumeier (RDB)

Maillot (Geneva Ballet and Northern Ballet)

Van Dantzig (?) Dutch National Ballet in late 1980s

Royal New Zealand Ballet early 2000s - sorry can't remember choreographer 

 

For instance -- I've no knowledge about the North or Pastor versions.  What about them made them distinctive?

 

1 hour ago, Lynette H said:

 

I rather liked that version too. I thought the final detail (Romeo realises after he has drunk the poison that Juliet is stirring after all) was very touching. 

 

A few more for the list, seen here in London

 

Mark Morris for his own company (a female Mercutio, I think)

Ratmansksy for National Ballet of Canada

Mats Ek for Swedish National Ballet (decidedly odd. Best thing in it was Ana Laguna as the Nurse).

There was a production which was allegedly of the Ashton version at the Coilseum produced by Schaufuss with Osipova and Vasiliev a couple of years ago, with just a handful of dancers. 

 

I didn't get to see Cathy Marston's Juliet and Romeo for Bern Ballet when it came here but there's a clue in the title that it wasn't a conventional approach. 

 

 

Odd can be good -- was it just Laguna's performance that made it unusual for you, or were there other elements?

 

1 hour ago, Mashinka said:

I liked the version by Angelin Prelocaj, most didn't though.

 

Valery Panov made an excellent version in Bonn with some fabulous male dancing, especially for Tybalt who made his entrance jumping from the top of an arch over the stage, quite a drop, still sticks in the memory.

 

Personal favourite is Vladimir Vasiliev's, so true to Shakespeare's text.

 

Well, yes, jumping off the top of the set would be memorable (insert eyebrows raised here)...