Intense

“Romeo and Juliet”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre (Historic Stage)
Moscow, Russia
April 04, 2024 (video)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2024 by Ilona Landgraf

In early April, the Bolshoi Ballet revived Leonid Lavrovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, which senior balletomanes may remember from the company’s famous tours of London and the Met in the 1950s and ‘60s. Galina Ulanova, Raisa Strutchkova, Vladimir Vasiliev, Maris Liepa, and many others wrote ballet history dancing the leading roles. I couldn’t attend the premiere in Moscow but was finally able to watch a video of the opening night. It made me wonder why the production had been dropped from the schedule.

For Romeo and Juliet, he created two elaborate sights, among others, of Veronese squares where the Montagues and Capulets fete and brawl, a lavish golden blue lobby, a candle-lit hall in which the Capulets welcome their ball guests, and a bed chamber rich with tapestries for Juliet. I especially liked the frugal aesthetic of Friar Laurence’s cell, which soothed and cleared every agitated mind. The balcony scene took place on a wide terrace leading into a Mediterranean garden; the crypt of the Capulet family was above ground and surrounded by nature. Front stage interludes enabled smooth set changes behind the closed curtain.

Unlike in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, for example, where Jürgen Rose’s costumes are a feature in themselves (think of Juliet’s showy, long, red cape at the wedding), Lavrovsky’s production has period costumes that fit harmoniously in the total picture. At times, Verona’s square looked like a Renaissance painting.
Leonid Lavrovsky (1905-1967), who co-authored the original libretto together with Sergei Radlov, Sergei Prokofiev, and Adrian Piotrovsky, created a choreography in which every step, leap, and glance conveys the stirrings of the soul. As Mikhail Lavrovsky explained in an interview, “The point is not to formally perform ten pirouettes from the fourth position—here, every movement is determined by great feelings and great meaning.” The protagonists have a nuanced and complex psychology, which is revealed completely naturally.
Spirituality and faith are crucial. At the altar of Friar Laurence’s cell, Romeo (Daniil Potapsev) and Juliet (Elizaveta Kokoreva) invoked God’s blessing for their wedding and, when coerced by her parents to marry Count Paris (Klim Efimov), Juliet’s gaze wandered to the icon in her bed chamber as if to reassure herself of help from above. A straightforward (and able) storyteller, Lavrovsky gave Friar Laurence (Yuri Ostrovsky) four simple gestures to explain to Juliet the potion’s effect. John Neumeier, by comparison, invented an extra play in the play in his version of Romeo and Juliet to achieve the same result. Compared to other interpretations, I found Lavrovsky’s Romeo and Juliet the most emotionally intense, especially as it was danced by a cast as great as the Bolshoi’s.

I’ve watched Kokoreva several times, and each time, she was superlative. The ease with which she mastered challenging technique is beyond belief. As Juliet, every fiber of her body expressed her emotions. When she hurried home from Friar Laurence and ran right into her parents and Count Paris, wrapped in a simple black shawl, she looked fragile, almost like a nun. But her heart had Herculean strength.
Potaptsev is one of several new talents whom the company’s artistic director, Makhar Vaziev, added to the roster. After graduating from the Boris Eifman Dance Academy in 2022, Potaptsev joined the Bolshoi Ballet and was appointed soloist in the same year. In the recent TV competition Bolshoi Ballet on Rossiya-Kultura TV, he was awarded the title “Discovery of the Year.” A fine dancer with an elegant line and space-consuming jumps, young, and not yet seasoned by experience, he was an ideal Romeo. Although a bit insecure when he found himself alone on Verona’s market square in the opening scene, he quickly became self-assured. Fueled by a rush of love, his heart seemed to burst out of his chest when he flew across the stage. A sincere young man, he understood the scope of his and Juliet’s decision, yet he carried on with utter abandon. Bravo!

Vyacheslav Lopatin’s fun-loving Mercutio was friends with everyone except Tybalt (Mikhail Lobukhin). It’s a miracle to me that Lopatin managed to pale when his Mercutio was fatally hit—and wasn’t there even a sudden sweat on his forehead? In any case, his death felt like a thriller. Tybalt was consumed by his own irascibility, and I tend to believe that booze corroded his mind. Whereas Mercutio was sociable, Tybalt bullied inferiors. At death’s door, Tybalt’s fists hammered the ground as if ire would avert his fate.
His aunt, Lady Capulet (Anastasia Meskova), incited hate and revenge after her nephew’s death, but her hardheaded will broke when confronted by her daughter Juliet’s desperation, not least because Juliet’s nurse (Anastasia Vinokur) wasn’t too shy to scold her.
When faced with their children’s deaths, the family patriarchs, Lord Capulet (Alexander Vodopetov) and Lord Montague (Egor Khromushin), made peace. Sometimes a ridiculous figure in other productions, Count Paris (Klim Efimov) was chic and vain, but apart from that a benign suitor. As on previous occasions, Yuri Ostrovsky’s man of God, Friar Laurence, was a source of spirituality. Romeo’s and Mercutio’s best buddy, Benvolio, was danced by Ivan Alexeyev. Kamil Yangurazov played the Duke of Verona.
Elizaveta Kruteleva portrayed Juliet’s friend as a charming lady; her companion, the troubadour, was performed by Mark Chino. The jesters were led by Georgy Gusev, who inexhaustibly executed jack-knife jumps and pirouettes. The corps brought exuberant life to Verona’s streets. Especially spine-tingling was the fencing.

The drama was intensified by the sweeping rendition of Prokofiev’s score that Anton Grishanin and the Bolshoi Orchestra performed.

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