As I sat down to watch "So You Think You Can Dance" Season Premiere, I remembered the buzz of a new ballet to be aired on PBS that very night. Of course, in seeking out the details of the who, what, when...I became very apprehensive when the thought of enduring watching what was about to grace that big ole tube with its presence drew near. Romeo and Juliet, danced by New York City Ballet. My first reaction was "Really? Why would they even attempt to touch such a classic?"
Romeo and Juliet, with music by Sergei Prokofiev, is my all time favorite ballet. The contributing factors to the reasoning for this are many. The well known story by William Shakespeare is enough to interest the audience. It's a beautiful tragedy with humorous scenes and much love for family and lovers. The score for this ballet is unbelievably beautiful. If you close your eyes and listen you can picture when the characters are in town, at the ball, in the middle of a family vs. family fued, and when the lovers are together. While the scenery is usually very simple and usually on the dark side, it still makes for a great depiction of the times and usually so do the costumes.
I do have to say first and foremost, I did not see the whole ballet as I did miss the beginning because, as I said, "So You Think You Can Dance" was on and I had to see the horrible train wreck the initial auditions are. So my comments will be on the later half of the ballet.
The music was the first thing I noticed. Prokofiev was rolling over in his grave at around 9:30pm EST last night. At first, I thought the orchestra just could not get it together to play the most amazing full length ballet score of any of the classics. As the ballet went on I began to realize, this was not a bad orchestra with untrained musicians, but an intentional botching of the score. Leave well enough alone. If it's not broken...please...by the love of God, do not break it. Once I could pull it together and overlook the music, the next thing to catch my eye was the costumes. I obviously just did not understand the significance of the clown-esque yellow that Tybalt was wearing or the turquoise blue tights that pretty boy Romeo sported. Benvolio was in a very prominant Royal Blue and then Marcutio was in purple. I do not believe those colors even existed in the time period (except for purple) and I do know for sure there was no way of not noticing that their costumes did not match those of the rest of the Montague and Capulet costumes. If you are going to continue the tradition of the green and red for either side, do not mix a contemporary spin on the main characters. It was distracting and just not believable. Either modernize the whole ballet or leave it traditional and continue with the theme throughout. Also the baby doll style dress that Juliet wore as her night gown was just that much too short. It was distracting to always see her back side when the dress rode up. Plus, Juliet would have slept in a longer night gown in that period of history.
New York City Ballet was founded by George Balanchine who was known for believing in dancing for dance sake. This belief lead him to choreograph hundreds of ballets without a storyline. His ballets may have a theme, but they do not follow a plot line. With that said, acting is not one of New York City Ballet's fortes, and this was very apparent last night. I will give credit to Juliet (Sterling Hyltin) as her acting was believable, sometimes over the top but yes, believable and to Tybalt (Joaquin De Luz) who played an over protective, mean family member very well. Darci Kistler, who played Lady Capulet was lacking in acting skills at times where it was imperative to be distraught, angry or compassionate. She seemed to only have one look but tried to show her emotion through how hard/fast her steps were or by how hard she shook her arms. Ms. Kistler was beautiful in Balanchine's "Theme and Variations" where acting was not required, but I would have rather seen someone else, maybe even more mature looking as Lady Capulet.
The story of Romeo and Juliet was written with an ending by Shakespeare that, at first, Sergei Prokofiev did not like because he wanted Romeo and Juliet to live. He believed that dead people could not dance. However, he was proved wrong and continued composing music along the Shakespeare plot. However, in Peter Martin’s version of Romeo and Juliet there were some aspects missing and then there were even extra plots split offs added. For example, there is no Rosalyn for Romeo to flirt with before he is overwhelmed with Juliet. There were no harlots for Romeo and his friends to flirt with and to show their boyish charms with. This took away from the build up of the character of Romeo. We just saw him as a boy off the street who fell in love with Juliet. We do not know anything about him. The most important aspect that left me puzzled was at the end of the ballet during the Crypt Scene. Paris walks into the crypt and sees Romeo visiting Juliet and they fight. Romeo then kills Paris before killing himself. Why? What was the point of changing the story? Romeo still dies and then so does Juliet so why change it?
My conclusion and I repeat, if it is not broken…PLEASE do not fix it. I suggest NYCB stick with those wonderful ballets that the amazing and genius, George Balanchine choreographed and keep the classics to others.
Romeo and Juliet, with music by Sergei Prokofiev, is my all time favorite ballet. The contributing factors to the reasoning for this are many. The well known story by William Shakespeare is enough to interest the audience. It's a beautiful tragedy with humorous scenes and much love for family and lovers. The score for this ballet is unbelievably beautiful. If you close your eyes and listen you can picture when the characters are in town, at the ball, in the middle of a family vs. family fued, and when the lovers are together. While the scenery is usually very simple and usually on the dark side, it still makes for a great depiction of the times and usually so do the costumes.
I do have to say first and foremost, I did not see the whole ballet as I did miss the beginning because, as I said, "So You Think You Can Dance" was on and I had to see the horrible train wreck the initial auditions are. So my comments will be on the later half of the ballet.
The music was the first thing I noticed. Prokofiev was rolling over in his grave at around 9:30pm EST last night. At first, I thought the orchestra just could not get it together to play the most amazing full length ballet score of any of the classics. As the ballet went on I began to realize, this was not a bad orchestra with untrained musicians, but an intentional botching of the score. Leave well enough alone. If it's not broken...please...by the love of God, do not break it. Once I could pull it together and overlook the music, the next thing to catch my eye was the costumes. I obviously just did not understand the significance of the clown-esque yellow that Tybalt was wearing or the turquoise blue tights that pretty boy Romeo sported. Benvolio was in a very prominant Royal Blue and then Marcutio was in purple. I do not believe those colors even existed in the time period (except for purple) and I do know for sure there was no way of not noticing that their costumes did not match those of the rest of the Montague and Capulet costumes. If you are going to continue the tradition of the green and red for either side, do not mix a contemporary spin on the main characters. It was distracting and just not believable. Either modernize the whole ballet or leave it traditional and continue with the theme throughout. Also the baby doll style dress that Juliet wore as her night gown was just that much too short. It was distracting to always see her back side when the dress rode up. Plus, Juliet would have slept in a longer night gown in that period of history.
New York City Ballet was founded by George Balanchine who was known for believing in dancing for dance sake. This belief lead him to choreograph hundreds of ballets without a storyline. His ballets may have a theme, but they do not follow a plot line. With that said, acting is not one of New York City Ballet's fortes, and this was very apparent last night. I will give credit to Juliet (Sterling Hyltin) as her acting was believable, sometimes over the top but yes, believable and to Tybalt (Joaquin De Luz) who played an over protective, mean family member very well. Darci Kistler, who played Lady Capulet was lacking in acting skills at times where it was imperative to be distraught, angry or compassionate. She seemed to only have one look but tried to show her emotion through how hard/fast her steps were or by how hard she shook her arms. Ms. Kistler was beautiful in Balanchine's "Theme and Variations" where acting was not required, but I would have rather seen someone else, maybe even more mature looking as Lady Capulet.
The story of Romeo and Juliet was written with an ending by Shakespeare that, at first, Sergei Prokofiev did not like because he wanted Romeo and Juliet to live. He believed that dead people could not dance. However, he was proved wrong and continued composing music along the Shakespeare plot. However, in Peter Martin’s version of Romeo and Juliet there were some aspects missing and then there were even extra plots split offs added. For example, there is no Rosalyn for Romeo to flirt with before he is overwhelmed with Juliet. There were no harlots for Romeo and his friends to flirt with and to show their boyish charms with. This took away from the build up of the character of Romeo. We just saw him as a boy off the street who fell in love with Juliet. We do not know anything about him. The most important aspect that left me puzzled was at the end of the ballet during the Crypt Scene. Paris walks into the crypt and sees Romeo visiting Juliet and they fight. Romeo then kills Paris before killing himself. Why? What was the point of changing the story? Romeo still dies and then so does Juliet so why change it?
My conclusion and I repeat, if it is not broken…PLEASE do not fix it. I suggest NYCB stick with those wonderful ballets that the amazing and genius, George Balanchine choreographed and keep the classics to others.
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