Prokofiev : Romeo and Juliet
Artists of the Bolshoi Ballet
Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre
Andrei Anikhanov
Living in the UK, inevitably the version of Romeo and Juliet I get to see most often is Kenneth MacMillan's 1965 version, and outstanding though it is, it is also nice to see alternate versions once in a while. The Bolshoi is holding on to Yuri Grigorovich's 1979 version. It has to be said that it's very characteristic Grigorovich - plenty of spectacle, plenty of muscular dancing for the men, a potentially powerful and dominant female principal role (well, when your wife was the prima assoluta Natalia Bessmertnova, it stands to reason), not a great deal of subtlety, and in this particular case, far too much recycled Spartacus! This is particularly true of the choreography for Tybalt, which looks almost exactly like that of Crassus, and the character comes across the same, arrogant and vindictive. That said, it was in particularly convincing hands tonight, those of Mikhail Lobukhin, who, together with the fleet-footed Andrei Bolotin (Mercutio) more or less stole the show.
That impression might have been mitigated had we had a stronger pair of lovers. The dancing, in and of itself, was fine, well up to the expected Bolshoi standard, but neither Anna Nikulina nor Alexander Volchkov conveyed much emotion to me. It surprised me a little of Volchkov, I had a quick look at his bio, and he's been dancing this part, in this version, for a good ten years now; I'd have thought he'd have learned to get more out of it than this by now. Nikulina, on the other hand, would appear to be newer to her role, and perhaps her somewhat perfunctory approach to the heart of her subject repressed her partner's reactions. At any rate, I found her unsatisfactory as Juliet, and him not a great deal better as Romeo. Surrounded by more vigorous, more engaged interpreters, like Lobukhin and Bolotin, or the haughty Lady Capulet of Kristina Karasyova, it's small wonder they were frequently upstaged.
It was a pity, because without a good Juliet and Romeo, much of the core goes out of the performance, and this despite the efforts of the orchestra under Andrei Anikhanov. The playing was sometimes a little scrappy, but never less than whole-hearted. An enjoyable enough spectacle, therefore, but not a great Romeo and Juliet.
[Next: 15th May]
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