Photo: Agathe Poupeney
“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.” It is one of the most renowned lines spoken by Juliet in the lovely balcony scene. Besides those famous and beautiful dialogues written by Shakespeare, another quintessential work when speaking of《Romeo and Juliet》is the ballet production composed by Prokofiev.
In Opéra Bastille,《Romeo and Juliet》is the first three-act ballet I’m finally able to watch after a long break. It’s my first time enjoying the version of Ballet Opéra de Paris. This is a flamboyant style of choreography created by Rudolf Noureev.
Romeo and Juliet interpreted by Hugo Marchand and Dorothée Gilbert portray so well two naïve teenagers- well, Juliet is definitely at the age of 13 or 14, and let’s assume that Romeo is around 16 years old. In the first appearance of Romeo, Hugo gives us a young boy who only thinks about love, the long and violent argument between the two families, Montague and Capulet drift like a cloud to him.
Photo: Agathe Poupeney
Photo: Agathe Poupeney
If I was born in the same era and realm as them, Romeo would be someone I admire so much, but would never be courageous enough to go near him because he could be fun, lovable, yet irresponsible. Hugo’s dances happen to strengthen this impression on Romeo of me. Even though I am sitting up on the gallery, I can clearly sense the atmosphere filled with lightness created by Hugo; in his body movements, I feel that Romeo is surely a fella who lives in his own world.
Dorothée as well interprets a cheery little girl who “hath not seen the change of fourteen years”. Seeing adults acting in childlike roles in the movie or TV series is always something that irritates me somehow; nonetheless, I seldom have this thought while watching a theatrical production. The body language of Dorothée makes me believe that she IS that young and cuddly Juliet who has not yet had the concept of marriage.
Photo: Agathe Poupeney
Audiences can obviously detect the lovable relation between Juliet and Tybalt, played by Mathieu Ganio. Putting aside the question about whether Tybalt loves Juliet as an admirer, a protector or a big brother, we can tell the pure love and strong bond between the two characters. It is extremely heart-warming when seeing Juliet acting so playful as Tybalt is trying to get her to put on the wedding dress; Tybalt is being fooled around by Juliet because he couldn’t force her like the patriarch Capulet.
That’s what I admire the most about ballet.
There is neither word nor a line needed to describe the relationship and feelings between the characters; the body language and interactions like Dorothée’s and Mathieu’s already speak more than a thousand words.
Speaking of Tybalt, his hatred with Mercutio is always one of the highlights in any kind of interpretation of 《Romeo and Juliet》; they bring sparks and tensions to this love story.
Pablo Legasa is a mischievous Mercutio with a load of “bad boy vibe”, he creates a completely opposite aura with the rigorous Capulet family. With him, his friends and boys from the Montague family are always having fun (well, even though I don’t think it’d be that fun if we meet this gang in the street in real life.).
Pablo and Mathieu are perfect dancers for these two roles; both of them seem to be meant for their characters. Mathieu’s serious charisma makes an ideal Tybalt; he interprets a member from the mighty and stubborn Capulet family and a man who can be short-tempered when it comes to bitter foes. Mathieu creates a Tybalt that can well represent the strength and power that the Capulet family is pursuing.
Photo: Agathe Poupeney
While Pablo is full of free spirits; his bohemian personality shows no doubt that Mercutio is more attracted to the way of living of the Montague family, who are more of the simple.
Interestingly, Rudolf’s choreography heightens the amusing atmosphere for the audiences while seeing Mercutio provoking Tybalt and the latter chasing back the former after enduring enough of his appearance during the ball. You can always hear the sound of chuckling from the auditorium room when Mercutio and Tybalt are on stage together.
Photo: Agathe Poupeney
However, how would《Romeo and Juliet》be《Romeo and Juliet》if the twist doesn’t exist?
Of course, the facial and body expressions of those tragical emotions performed by each of the dancers are exceptional, Dorothée, notably. At first, Juliet is a young girl who is too young to be married; love, family responsibility and other burdens are nothing to her. Dorothée’s movements express a radical mental transformation of Juliet: from madly in love with charming and mysterious Romeo to struggling with the death of her dearest cousin slain by the love of her life.
While I am especially impressed by the plot design that Romeo and the rest of his friends think that Mercutio is pretending to be dead, fooling around with the gang and mocking Tybalt as usual. In my opinion, it is such a brilliant scenario to kindle various and complicated feelings of the audience- should we laugh, because of teases of the crew? Or, should we be sad, because of knowing the fact the Mercutio is dying.
I have watched several productions of《Romeo and Juliet》, and Rudolf’s choreography performed by Ballet Opera de Paris is so far, the one that shows the most childlike and impish air of the characters in this tragic love story.
This article is also published on La Notte.
