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Ratmansky Romeo & Juliet: Premiere Wed 22 Nov


mnacenani

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Genya Obr. was first cast for Fri 24 eve, but was then moved to Sun 26 mat when Chudin dropped out and was replaced by Belyakov, most probably to give them rehearsal time. Then Lantratov dropped out after the premiere and Katya Kry. was also removed from her other slot and Obraz-Belyakov moved to Fri 24th eve which was her original date. Last night I saw Katya-Belyakov cast for Sun 26th matinee, so Genya's being shuffled around seems to have been due to injury-related cast changes requiring extra rehearsal time for new partners.

Edited by mnacenani
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There is a recent interview with Ratmansky in the Bolshoy programme book for his Romeo&Juliet staging which premiered past week. I have scanned it to jpg and posted via Flickr for the benefit of any members who might be interested. Btw :  my suspicion that the music of Act 1 had been cut has been vindicated. In addition the crash-bang accelerated finale certainly makes me suspect that "overtime " was a major factor in Ratmansky's disrespectful treatment of the drama, disgusting. Maybe he should avoid staging Shakespeare in countries where theatre managements have to kow-tow to trade unions (!)

 

Scan_20171127_145917Scan_20171127_145917_001Scan_20171127_145917_002Scan_20171127_145917_004Scan_20171127_145917_005

 

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7 minutes ago, variated said:

How are you “vindicated” by an interview that says he used the whole score but for “fragments”?

I know this score by heart, I wrote in my report that the music for Act 1 seemed to be cut, and here Ratmansky confirms that it was cut. "Maybe some unessential fragments" is a defensive statement - it was noticeable, at least by myself.

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Operas and ballets that are based on a books or plays are not the same thing as the originals:  Prokofiev's score is not Shakespeare:  it's the programmatic soundtrack for parts of a Shakespearean play.  Ratmansky's use of Prokofiev's score to tell chunks of Shakepeare's story is only that.  If there's a beef, it's that Prokofiev's score should never be abridged, adapted, or changed.  I don't agree with that point of view, but removing small fragments from the score is not about Shakespeare.

 

 

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Thanks for posting this article. It's very interesting. I'm not in favor of Ratmansky changing the scene where Juliet wakes up before Romeo dies. I can't imagine how that would play out, but I guess I'd have to see it. That is such a critical point in the drama though. 

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2 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

That is such a critical point in the drama though

This is not the only scene R has made a hash of imho - in my report on the premiere I wrote about the priest dancing a PdT with R&J - I couldn't believe it ! Evidently R and some of his fans think Romeo&Juliet is "light entertainment", a "spectacle" !

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Thank you for scanning the interview.

For those who love Prokofiev's score, cutting may seem sacrilege. Though I enjoy the music and appreciate its storytelling, I can't feel the same. The long score with its reams of "dance" music seems to me to weigh down every version of the ballet I have seen that follows it closely. The only exception for my taste might be the original staging by Lavrosky. I've only seen it once, so possibly I was snowed by the novelty, but when I saw it in Washington D.C. with the Bolshoi (they were still dancing it then) Lavrosky's complex social layering seemed to me to "fill in" the music in a way that seemed less empty--and less dull-- than other versions that closely follow the Prokoviev/Lavrosky template...that I have seen anyway.

Edited to add: in the interview Ratmansky expresses himself differently about the score than I do here. He clearly has tremendous respect and love for it.

Edited by Drew
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3 hours ago, Deflope said:

Juliet waking up before Romeo dies is not a new concept. It’s present in the Grigorovich version.

That is news to me. So, in these versions (or just the Grigorovich) does Juliet still kill herself and if so why? Or does she wake up after Romeo has taken the poison but before he dies?

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7 hours ago, Drew said:

when I saw it in Washington D.C. with the Bolshoi (they were still dancing it then) Lavrosky's complex social layering seemed to me to "fill in" the music in a way that seemed less empty--and less dull-- than other versions that closely follow the Prokoviev/Lavrosky template..

Whaddyaexpect ?? There is only one original, the joint pinnacle of drama, ballet and modern composition. All the rest are me-too imitations cashing in by the unwarranted use of the "trademark". If you would like to see the original again here it is in HD danced by the incomparable Vishnyova and Shklyarov : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYhT2AsdprI

 

Edited by mnacenani
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8 hours ago, ABT Fan said:

That is news to me. So, in these versions (or just the Grigorovich) does Juliet still kill herself and if so why? Or does she wake up after Romeo has taken the poison but before he dies?

In all the versions mentioned (Grigorovich, Ratmansky, and the Luhrmann movie), Romeo still takes the poison but doesn’t see Juliet stirring.  After he takes the poison, he sees Juliet and they interact. Then Romeo still dies. Juliet still dies. 

Here’s the Grigorovich version done by the Kremlin Ballet  The death scene starts at about 1h and 45 minutes

https://youtu.be/c5NHYs9aMxo

The ending of the Baz Luhrmann movie

https://youtu.be/0FQl2GF_Hfo

Btw, West Side Story did have the Juliet/Maria living. 

 

 

 

Edited by Deflope
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Thanks so much for the scan -- I wouldn't have seen this article otherwise.

I'm greedy -- I'd like to see as many approaches as I can.  I've seen danced R&Js with all kinds of twists, including changes in the score (or different score altogether) -- none of them are a play-by-play translation of the text (not to mention the ongoing discussion of what is actually the Shakespearean text...).  If a choreographer were to take on that challenge, I'd want to see that too.

Looking forward to seeing what Ratmansky has done with this material.

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I agree, and Prokofiev was not the only composer to write music for "Romeo and Juliet," and Kent Stowell and Stewart Kershaw assembled a beautiful score from Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" and other Tchaikovsky scores for Stowell's "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet."

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2 minutes ago, sandik said:

Tudor!

Yes, that great Delius score ("A Village Romeo and Juliet.").  There were other operas based on the story, most notably by Gounod, although I'm not sure if that music has been used for ballet.  There was the terrific Caniparoli ballet, "The Bridge," based on a contemporary real-life tragedy that had many parallels to "Romeo and Juliet," to beautiful music by Shostakovich, and, with five (or six) couples, it gave great opportunities to many of the wonderful corps members and soloists, many of who made it up the ranks.  

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3 hours ago, ABT Fan said:

I especially want to see the Grigorovich version.

The European sat/cable channel Mezzo shows the current Bolshoy Grigarovich Romeo&Juliet from time to time, don't know whether Mezzo is available across the pond. Imho another me-too adaptation which fails to better the original (which I find insuperable) and falls short by a mile.

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The Grigorovich version of R&J is still available on DVD, starring Bessmertnova & Mukhamedov. Not my favorite version of the ballet but the leads are wonderful. You cannot go wrong with Bessmertnova; she defied her age. Here's the link to the US Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Prokofiev-Bessmertnova-Mukhamedov-Grigorovich-Bolshoi/dp/B0002TXSSA/ref=sr_1_6?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1511898532&sr=1-6&keywords="Romeo+and+Juliet"+ballet+DVD+Bolshoi

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the Ratmansky version in cinemas, this January. Our family is hoping for Obraztsova but we've enjoyed Krysanova in recent cinemascasts.

 

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