Romeo and Juliet (MacMillan)

This article is about the MacMillan ballet to Prokofiev's score. For John Cranko's ballet, see Romeo and Juliet (Cranko). For Sean Lavery's setting of the balcony scene, see Romeo and Juliet (Lavery). For Peter Martins' ballet, see Romeo + Juliet (ballet). For other uses, see Romeo and Juliet (disambiguation).

Romeo and Juliet
Choreographed by	Kenneth MacMillan
Composed by	Sergei Prokofiev
Date of premiere	1965
Place of premiere	Royal Opera House, London
Original ballet company	The Royal Ballet
Genre	Classical ballet
Type	Classical ballet

In 1965 choreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Royal Ballet production of Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

MacMillan had previously choreographed the balcony scene for Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable to dance for Canadian Television. This experience made him seem a good candidate to choreograph the entire ballet for Covent Garden, when the Soviet Union refused to allow Leonid Lavrovsky's classic production to tour to London. MacMillan prepared his version with the blessing of Frederick Ashton, and Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev brought new life to the characters, as did the set and costume designs by Nicholas Georgiadis; Fonteyn, considered to be near retirement, embarked upon a rejuvenated career with a partnership with Nureyev.

Though MacMillan had created the ballet on Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable, for "bureaucratic reasons" Fonteyn and Nureyev danced the opening night, to MacMillan's disappointment.

The production was filmed and received a cinematic release in 1966.

Sources

• Gottlieb, Robert. Reading Dance: A Gathering of Memoirs, Reportage, Criticism, Profiles, Interviews, and Some Uncategorizable Extras. Pantheon, 2008.
• Parry, Jann. Different Drummer: The Life of Kenneth MacMillan. London: Faber & Faber, 2009. ISBN 978-0-571-24302-2

External links

• IMDb entry for the cinema version