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Romeo and Juliet | The Australian Ballet
- Ron Lee, CSP, MAICD
- 12 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Romeo and Juliet
The Australian Ballet
Choreographer John Cranko
Music: Sergei Prokofiev
Costume and Set Design: Jürgen Rose
Original Lighting Design: William Akers
Lighting Design redesigned for The Australian Ballet: Jon Buswell
Photo credit: Daniel Boud
Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, along with Hamlet, is one of William Shakespeare’s most performed works. The star-crossed lovers plot is based on an Italian story by Matteo Bandello and translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562,before it was turned into prose as Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in 1567. That was three decades before Shakespeare’s masterpiece made it to the stage.
Romeo and Juliet has since inspired the retelling of that tale in many media.
In 1869, a twenty-eight-year-old Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed an orchestral piece of the same name.
Film versions have been directed by George Cukor in 1936, Franco Zeffirelli in 1968, Baz Luhrmann in 1996 and Carlo Carlei in 2013.
In West Side Story, the 1957 musical by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim the Montagues and Capulets were replaced by the Sharks and the Jets.
In 1963, The Reflections, a Detroit pop group, recorded the doo-wop hit, Just Like Romeo and Juliet.
The initial Australian Ballet incarnation was the creation of John Cranko and was first staged in 1974.
Of course, all of the pas de deux performed by Grace Carroll as Juliet and Joseph Caley as Romeo are intense and moving, with Carroll effortlessly gliding and floating across and above the stage.
Even though Caley and Carroll dance the title characters, Romeo and Juliet is an ensemble work with other strong performances by Jarryd Madden (Tybalt), Marcus Morelli (Mercutio), Cameron Holmes (Benvolio), Jett Ramsay (Paris), Adam Bull (Lord Capulet), Serena Graham (Lady Capulet), Gillian Revie (Juliet’s nurse), Isobelle Dashwood (Rosaline) and Lawrence Timothy Coleman as the Duke of Verona and the Friar.
Jürgen Rose has helpfully colour-coded the costumes with the Montagues wearing shades of red and the Capulets in dark green, black and gold, and the 16th century setting lends itself to some spectacular costuming.
Add to the spectacle the Opera Australia Orchestra under the guidance of Concertmaster Huy-Nguyen Bui and you have a brilliant theatrical experience.
Gotta love a ballet that has colour, movement, amazing costumes, big music from a full orchestra, romance, sword fighting and the longest second act death scene in the history of ballet. It has everything you could want from an evening at the Opera House.
