The Moscow City Ballet has been touring since last November with a programme of four ballets delighting audiences the length and breadth of the country. We chose to see Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, a marriage of a wonderful musical score with a passionate love story – every dancer’s dream.
The company combines technical excellence with breathtaking portrayals of passion and grief acting out the story we all know of the Montagues and Capulets, two feuding families who bring about the deaths, not only of the young lovers but of Mercutio and Tybalt, which finally unites them in their dreadful loss. The ballet starts with a powerful prologue with the bodies of Tybalt and Mercutio borne aloft by the spectres of death, followed by the bodies of Romeo and Juliet, a stark reminder of the catastrophe to come.
Alevtina Lapshina dances the role of Juliet radiantly, with a graceful elegance which nevertheless still expresses the girlish glee of the teenage Juliet; the smile never leaves her face as she joyfully anticipates the prospect of her first grown-up dance. Paris (Sergei Saliev) is her intended suitor soon to be cast aside in favour of Romeo, Talgat Kozhabayev, who strides across the role with strength and fervour, cocooning Juliet in his impassioned embrace and lifting her as though she was a piece of thistledown. Lapshina and Kozhabayev are a great partnership and watching them dance together is sheer magic.
As well as tragedy, there is comedy and Lyubov Lysak as the Nurse made us laugh with her characterisation of an old woman, surrounded by teasing young men, her only thought to protect her young mistress. Artem Minakov as Mercutio delights with his performance and Daniel Orlov’s Tybalt is commanding and vigorous.
The Moscow City Ballet, assisted by the fine orchestra, gave a wonderful display of the finest dancing, executed with perfection, precision and last, but not least, passion, which the audience loved from start to finish, and the many bows taken at the end of the performance were a testament to this. A feast of ballet not to be missed!
Jacquie Vowles