About the work
Sergei Prokofiev's full-length ballet in four acts, based on Shakespeare's tragedy, was composed between 1935 and 1936 for the Bolshoi Ballet. Political complications and objections to Prokofiev's original happy ending delayed the premiere, which finally took place in 1938 in Brno, Czechoslovakia. The Soviet premiere followed in 1940 at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad with Galina Ulanova as Juliet.
Plot
In Renaissance Verona, the feuding Montague and Capulet families maintain a generations-long enmity. Romeo Montague crashes a Capulet ball and falls instantly in love with Juliet. After a secret marriage performed by Friar Laurence, Romeo kills Juliet's cousin Tybalt in a duel and is exiled. To avoid an arranged marriage, Juliet takes a sleeping potion that simulates death. Romeo, not knowing the plan, finds her apparent corpse and poisons himself. Juliet wakes, discovers Romeo dead, and kills herself with his dagger. The feuding families, confronted with their children's deaths, reconcile over the tombs.
Cultural significance
Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet is the greatest narrative ballet of the twentieth century and has replaced almost all earlier Romeo ballets in the international repertoire. The Dance of the Knights, with its implacable rhythm and massive brass, is one of the most recognisable pieces of orchestral music and has been used extensively in film and television. Choreographies by Leonid Lavrovsky, Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, and Rudolf Nureyev have each defined a generation of principal dancers. The balcony pas de deux is among the most iconic in ballet.