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Given its premiere by The Royal Ballet in 1965 with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn dancing the title roles, Kenneth MacMillan's first full-evening ballet has become a signature work for the Company. From the outset, the production teems with life and colour as the townspeople, market traders and servants of the rival Montagues and Capulets go about their daily business in vibrant crowd scenes. But Romeo and Juliet take centre stage for those great pas de deux: the meeting in the ballroom, the balcony scene, the morning after the wedding and the final devastating tomb scene.
Although The Royal Ballet has performed Romeo and Juliet more than 400 times, each performance and pairing is subtly different, and Lauren Cuthbertson and Federico Bonelli are utterly captivating in the title roles.
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Romeo: Federico Bonelli
Juliet: Lauren Cuthbertson
Mercutio: Alexander Campbell
Tybalt: Bennet Gartside
Benvolio: Dawid Trzensimiech
Paris: Valeri Hristov
Lord Capulet: Christopher Saunders
Lady Capulet: Christina Arestis
Escalus Prince of Verona: Gary Avis
Artists of The Royal Ballet
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor: Barry Wordsworth
Music: Sergey Prokofiev
Choreography: Kenneth MacMillan
Designs: Nicholas Georgiadis
Lighting: John B. Read
Plus: Documentary: Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet; Sword Fighting: Sharp Points and Pirouettes; Cast Gallery
Picture: 16:9
Sound: 2.0 LPCM / 5.1 (5.0) DTS
Duration: 158 mins
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Format: NTSC
Year: 2012
"... [the] performance exemplified the Royal Ballet's high standards of seamless, naturalistic and musically attentive dance acting." New York Times
"... dance quality in this performance was technically exemplary at every rank in the cast hierarchy. No detail was left unpolished, from the magnificence of the ballroom scene to the market place, which was imbued with plenty of colour and dynamism from the harlots in particular." Independent Dance Reviews
"Such is the breathtaking impact of this production, with consistent excellence to savour from both principals and the corps, magnificent costumes and stage scenery and spot-on camera direction from Ross MacGibbon that criticism is effectively silenced. If you have been waiting for a truly outstanding Romeo and Juliet to appear on Blu-ray, then look no further." International Record Review
