ROMEO & JULIET at NYC Ballet

Sunday January 13, 2008 - Over the years I have realized that full-length classical ballets are not really my cup of tea. Of the standard full-lengths, I find ROMEO & JULIET the least enjoyable; to me the story simply doesn't translate into dance - at least not beyond the Balcony Scene, which Sean Lavery has so lovingly staged for City Ballet. Last season we saw this Peter Martins production and it was neither here nor there. The evolving set and the rather odd choices for costume colors provided a merely adequate framework for some pleasant enough choreography, energetic sword-fights and opportunities for some of the Company's youngest dancers to be seen in a dance-drama context. It was to see the dancers - and most specifically to see Erica Pereira and Allen Peiffer in the leads - that I returned for a second viewing.

And I found myself changing my mind about ROMEO & JULIET and more specifically about this production of it. The combination of Pereira & Peiffer had a lot to do with it. Erica, who just leaped into my sphere of interest with her brilliant debut as Dewdrop, has the youthful fragility and sense of wonder which ideally suit Juliet while Allen, so slender and handsome, is impetuous and ardent by turns. They don't act, they just ARE. Entirely natural, both of them...not a trace of artifice. You could absolutely believe they were teenagers and madly in love. And they danced so beautifully. I've sometimes watched Allen in the corps but I wasn't prepared for the poise and clarity of his dancing nor the silken ease of his partnering. Erica seemed to transcend technique. Her dancing - so floated and full of grace - was extraordinary in its lightness and poetic expression.  I would never have thought that any aspect of this production would ever make me cry, but Erica and Allen were so moving that I teared up more than once.

When I saw the casting, I thought that Giovanni Villalobos (Tybalt) and Adam Hendrickson (Mercutio) might have switched roles to advantage since for me Giovanni has the sunnier personality and Adam the darker; however sometimes putting a dancer in a role against personality type brings out unusual facets in their work. That's what happened today. Giovanni, with a goatee, looked very intense and nasty. Not the kind of adversary you want to encounter. (His headshot by the way doesn't do him justice.) Giovanni danced smoothly and was a good swordsman. Adam showed us the mischief under Mercutio's breezy demeanor which eventually gets him into trouble - trouble of the fatal sort. The character wavers between placating Tybalt and goading him and Adam played it to perfection. His bravura dancing was really impressive, his Act I solo and his trios with Romeo and Benvolio were effortlessly tossed off.  Adam rightly won a very enthusiastic ovation at his curtain call. In this production the Nurse is not some old fuddy-duddy but only a few years older than her charge and easily induced into some fun romps with the boys. Gwyneth Muller was wonderfully funny but when things began to go awry for the young lovers, Gwenyth's portrayal became quite moving. Chasing the spirited Juliet into the ballroom, Gwyneth took a nasty fall but Susan assured me it's in the staging.

Adrian Danchig-Waring was listed for Benvolio and I looked forward to seeing him but he seems to be injured and was replaced today by Antonio Carmena who was  great; I love Antonio's easy technique and the sense of joy in his dancing. He is such an engaging performer and I'd love to see him as Romeo, preferably with Ana Sophia Scheller as Juliet. Today the Argentine beauty had a memorable cameo as Tybalt's girlfriend. Dancing in ensemble with the other Capulet girls, Ana Sophia really showed her star quality. 

The "adults" in the production are played by beloved City Ballet royalty: Darci Kistler, Jock Soto and Albert Evans. Jon Stafford is now Friar Laurence, and he created a fine image with his tall frame and expressive face. Christian Tworzyanski was a very good Paris but he really needs a costume change for the final scene: coming to Juliet's tomb in his lavender and cream ballroom outfit just doesn't work. There must at least be a black tunic in some costume trunk around there that he could switch to. Among the corps I was glad to see Megan LeCrone and Amanda Hankes back onstage, and Pauline Golbin as eye-catching as ever among the guests at the ball. In the promenades, Katie Bergstrom & Vincent Paradiso made a nice impression together.

I like the Mandolin Dance with its five youthful street musicians; great to see Austin Bachman getting so tall and beautifully pointing his feet. He should be ready for the Company is a couple of years. An attractive feature of this production is the quintet of Juliet's friends led today by Rachel Piskin (another potential Juliet).

Enjoying this far more than I expected, I have to say I agree with Wei that it's necessary to see a Peter Martins work more than once to get a true impression. I've hated his SWAN LAKE, MORGEN, RELIQUARY and TALA GAISMA on first view and ended up loving them. The same thing seems to be happening now with ROMEO. It's not Peter's fault that the story precludes a lot of 'dancing' after Balcony Scene. The score is wondrous, really, and Faycal Karoui and his musicians played it for all it's worth. I love the saxophone! The house was packed, by the way...it looked like a sell-out.

UPDATE: I'd like to import Susan's comments on this performance from Ballet Talk; she makes some interesting points about the production in terms of relating the ballet to today's young people. Peter hasn't set it in the East Village with cellphones, drugs and clothes from The Gap, but he does give it contemporary touches that might connect with a younger audience. The full house certainly seemed very attentive and they whooped it up at the end; if a handful of them found they loved the music or that  they want to check out Adam, Erica & Allen in other rep then that's positive.

Susan wrote:             

"I think I came to terms with the production this time, somewhere around the middle of the first act. The early crowd scenes really irked me, I found the sight of the young ladies of Verona acting like modern teenagers at the mall particularly annoying (there were even 1 or 2 in headbands with their hair long & loose and perfectly straight. Didn't know they had blow dryers in Shakespeare's Verona). It was so incongruous to see them slapping & pulling each others hair, while the men pulled them off each other like street punks. Then it hit me – I think Martins intended them to behave like 21st century teenagers. You and I may know that his concept of the play is too shallow to allow the full degree of complexity & pathos to come through. But framing the action in terms that modern kids can identify with is an idea that may have its own merits. I can just imagine my 16 year old niece identifying with Periera (or Hyltin or Morgan) in a way that she could never identify with Ferri or Makarova. She might admire their performance, would undoubtably be moved by it, but she wouldn't see herself in them as she could with Martin's Juliets. It's a different way of looking at the story. Not my preference, but then I'm not part of his target audience. Alienated youth? Privileged kids whose parents can't understand them, don't have a clue as to their needs? Martins is speaking their language here. Yes, he's simplified the characters & motivations and trivialized it a bit in the process – but he may have also made it accessible to a new generation. There's no denying that the theater was full, and full of young people, lots of whom seemed new to the art form. Let's just hope lots of them come back, and discover the rest of the rep as they grow up."

Comments

[dawg]

Obie my homie, you wrote your review already, yo???

Karoui should tone it down...he should chill a lil, yo...

That little kid/harlequin mock-playing the lute, yo...he RULED wit da jumps, didn't he, yo?

YOU MY DAWG...

[philip]

Hi Sarah, I'm sorry I missed you but we will meet up at the 27th for Daniel's first PRODIGAL. I'm trying to see if I can get some other bloggers to gather someplace that day since EVERYONE is going! I had lost your e-mail address by the way but have just found it jotted down on a notepad so I'll put you in my address book.

Some other readers have e-mailed me that they were 'shocked' that I've started to say nice things about the R & J production. Perhaps I will reverse my opinion later but now I at least feel 'safe' going to see it once in a while.

My next challenge is DOUBLE FEATURE which I have avoided seeing til now. I would be tempted to pass on it again but I can't go a whole week without seeing the Company!

[Bob]

Well, I just want to say that I for one totally agree with you about R & J. I think that with many of Martins' ballets, your first impression is not all that positive but with repeated viewings, you find that you appreciate them more and more. I feel that he is really an underrated choreographer and that at some future time, perhaps when he is gone, there is going to be a reassessment of his work and that critics will give him much higher marks for his choreographic accomplishments. R & J is a good case in point. I have seen it five times now (three times last season, including a dress rehearsal, once at Saratoga and now once this season - on Saturday) and the more I see it, the more I like it. On Saturday, I even began to appreciate Act II (when due to the story line, there is very little real dancing). I certainly prefer Martins' version to the interminably dull Macmillan version that ABT does. On Saturday, the leads were danced by Kathryn Morgan and Sean Suozzi and everything you said about Erica and Allen could be applied to Katie and Sean. They did not just "play" Juliet and Romeo - they WERE Juliet and Romeo. At times, they simply took my breath away and brought me close to tears. When you see Katie Morgan's Juliet, you can understand what Jock Soto was talking about when he cited her as one of those very special dancers who have that "magic" and "soul" that set them apart from the rest and which simply cannot be taught. The theater was quite full on Saturday and Katie and Sean received a thunderous ovation at their curtain call. Tyler Angle (as Tybalt) and Andrew Veyette (as Mercutio) also excelled.

Give Double Feature a chance. I loved the music and thought the ballet was a delight when I saw it a few years ago. I'm going again on Feb. 3. I will also be there for the Danny Ulbricht "Prodigal" debut on the 27th. We also get to see Abi in Square Dance that day and Sterling, Sara, Rebecca and Ashley in Four Seasons. How is that for an all-star lineup!

[philip]

Katie Morgan is on my list to be my next Juliet! I wish I could go tomorrow might but I have opera at the Met.

[jim]

I cried twice during pas de deux from Romeo+Juliet with Katie and Sean.
Katie IS Juliet.
Clive Barnes says she can dance, but can't act which is a remark magnificent only in its idiocy and wrongheadedness.
Maybe Clive snoozed.
'

[philip]

It's interesting how people view the different dancers in this ballet. When I saw Sterling Hyltin & Rob Farchild I thought they couldn't be beat and then I saw Erica & Allen and thought the same thing. I look forward to catching Kathryn in the next revival. It seems to me that these young dancers don't really act; they are just themselves...in which case Katie would undoubtedly be a lovely Juliet.