Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)
Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, carries one of the most unlikely origin stories in ballet history. The composer arrived in Leningrad at the end of December 1934 specifically to negotiate with the Kirov Theatre. He was looking for a lyrical scenario, and when the dramatist Adrian Piotrovsky named Romeo and Juliet as a possibility, Prokofiev, by his own account, immediately clung onto it. What followed was a decade-long entanglement with Soviet cultural politics, a controversial happy ending, and a premiere that took place not in Moscow or Leningrad but in a Czechoslovak city called Brno. How did one of the twentieth century's most celebrated ballets take so long to reach its home stages? And who were the choreographers, conductors, and dancers who eventually gave it its enduring shape?
Sergey Radlov was the co-author of the scenario that Prokofiev set to music in September 1935, working alongside Adrian Piotrovsky. Their framework followed the precepts of drambalet, a form of dramatised ballet that the Kirov Theatre was officially promoting to replace works built primarily on choreographic display. The contract with the Kirov never materialised. Radlov resigned from the Kirov acrimoniously in June 1934, and a new agreement was signed instead with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, on the condition that Piotrovsky would remain involved.
The first serious obstacle was the ending. Prokofiev and his collaborators wrote a happy conclusion, departing deliberately from Shakespeare, and Soviet cultural officials objected. The Bolshoi's staff was then overhauled at the direction of Platon Kerzhentsev, the chairman of the Committee on Arts Affairs, and the ballet's production was postponed without a fixed date. Pravda's denunciation of Dmitri Shostakovich in 1936 also cast a chill over the performing arts more broadly, and Piotrovsky himself was named among the "degenerate modernists" targeted in that climate, which may have further discouraged the Bolshoi from proceeding.
The conductor Yuri Fayer, who met with Prokofiev frequently during the composition, pressed the composer strongly to restore the traditional tragic ending. Fayer would later conduct the first Bolshoi performance himself.
On the 30th of December 1938, the Mahen Theatre in Brno, then in Czechoslovakia, staged the world premiere of the full ballet. The production was a single-act version drawing music mainly from the first two orchestral suites that Prokofiev had already extracted from the score. Suites from the ballet had already been heard in Moscow and the United States, so concert audiences were somewhat familiar with the music. But the staged ballet itself was new territory.
Prokofiev was not present. His status of outbound restriction prevented him from attending the premiere of his own work. The Brno audience was therefore the first to see this Romeo and Juliet performed without its composer in the building, a fact that underscores how far the work had drifted from Prokofiev's control even before the better-known Soviet production took shape.
On the 11th of January 1940, the significantly revised version of the ballet opened at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad with choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky. Galina Ulanova danced Juliet and Konstantin Sergeyev danced Romeo, with Robert Gerbek as Tybalt and Andrei Lopukhov as Mercutio. Prokofiev objected to Lavrovsky's changes to the score, but the choreographer proceeded regardless, making substantial alterations to what had been composed.
The production won the Stalin Prize, and it became the version through which the world came to know the ballet. In 1955, Mosfilm adapted it into a film with Ulanova again as Juliet and Yuri Zhdanov as Romeo. That film won the prize for Best Lyrical Film at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival and received a nomination for the Palme d'Or. Prokofiev later acknowledged Lavrovsky's contribution formally, adding him as a co-author of the libretto after Lavrovsky had added considerably to what the original scenario contained.
Frederick Ashton choreographed the ballet for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1955, the same year the Mosfilm version reached Cannes. John Cranko's production for the Stuttgart Ballet followed in 1962, and that staging helped the company achieve a worldwide reputation; it reached American audiences for the first time in 1969.
In 1965, Kenneth MacMillan's version for the Royal Ballet premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev danced the title roles. Fonteyn was considered close to retirement at the time, but her partnership with Nureyev opened a renewed chapter in her career. Also in 1965, Oleg Vinogradov staged his own version in Russia while serving as assistant ballet master to Pyotr Gusev.
John Neumeier, partly inspired by Cranko, made his Frankfurt version in 1971; his Hamburg production followed in 1974 as his first full-length ballet with that company. In 1977, Rudolf Nureyev created a version for the London Festival Ballet, today known as the English National Ballet. Eva Evdokimova danced Juliet in London and Paris, and the production reached La Scala in 1980 and the Paris Opera Ballet in 1984, remaining in that company's repertoire.
Yuri Grigorovich's 1979 Bolshoi production, which stripped away most stage properties and concentrated the action into an all-danced text, was revived in 2010 and held its place in the Bolshoi repertory. Peter Martins brought the Prokofiev score to New York City Ballet in 2007, and Matthew Bourne's 2019 production at the Curve Theatre in Leicester reimagined the story inside a mental hospital called the Verona Institute, with Cordelia Braithwaite as Juliet and Paris Fitzpatrick as Romeo.
On the 4th of July 2008, the score that Prokofiev had originally composed, before the revisions demanded by Soviet conditions, received its world premiere. Musicologist Simon Morrison, the author of The People's Artist: Prokofiev's Soviet Years, had uncovered the original materials in the Moscow archives. He obtained permission from both the Prokofiev family and the Russian State Archive, then reconstructed the complete score.
Mark Morris created the choreography, and the Mark Morris Dance Group premiered the work at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College in New York state. The production then toured for a year through Berkeley, Norfolk, London, New York, and Chicago, allowing audiences to hear what Prokofiev had written before Soviet cultural pressures and Lavrovsky's revisions reshaped it.
Beyond the standard orchestral forces, Prokofiev built unusual instrumental colour into the ballet. A tenor saxophone appears both as a soloist and within the ensemble texture, giving the orchestra a sound not common in the classical ballet repertoire. The score also calls for a cornet, a viola d'amore, and two mandolins, the latter instruments adding what the source describes as an Italianate flavour to the music.
The percussion section is extensive, running from timpani and xylophone through maracas, glockenspiel, tambourine, woodblock, and a chime tuned to A. The keyboard group includes piano, celesta, and organ. The Gavotte in act one draws on material from Prokofiev's own earlier Classical Symphony, Op. 25. The full score is published by Muzyka and the Russian State Publisher.
Prokofiev himself made the first recording of music from the ballet with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in 1938, the same year as the Brno premiere. In 1954, Leopold Stokowski conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in an early stereo recording. The first recordings of the complete score came in 1959 from Gennady Rozhdestvensky with the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra, and then from both Andre Previn with the London Symphony Orchestra and Lorin Maazel with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1973. Those 1973 recordings gave Western audiences their first opportunity to hear the full score on disc.
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Common questions
When did Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet ballet premiere?
The world premiere of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 took place on the 30th of December 1938 at the Mahen Theatre in Brno, then in Czechoslovakia. It was a single-act production using music mainly from the first two orchestral suites. The Soviet premiere followed on the 11th of January 1940 at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad.
Who danced the leading roles in the 1940 Kirov premiere of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet?
Galina Ulanova danced Juliet and Konstantin Sergeyev danced Romeo in the 1940 Kirov Theatre production. Robert Gerbek played Tybalt and Andrei Lopukhov played Mercutio. The choreography was by Leonid Lavrovsky.
Why was Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet delayed in the Soviet Union?
The ballet's original happy ending, which departed from Shakespeare, provoked objections from Soviet cultural officials. The Bolshoi's staff was overhauled at the direction of Platon Kerzhentsev, chairman of the Committee on Arts Affairs, and production was postponed indefinitely. Pravda's 1936 denunciation of Shostakovich and other artists including co-librettist Piotrovsky likely contributed to the delay.
What unusual instruments does Prokofiev use in the Romeo and Juliet ballet score?
Prokofiev included a tenor saxophone, a cornet, a viola d'amore, and two mandolins alongside the standard orchestral forces. The mandolins were chosen to add an Italianate flavour. The percussion section also calls for maracas, a glockenspiel, and a chime tuned to A.
What is the history of the 1977 Rudolf Nureyev Romeo and Juliet production?
Rudolf Nureyev created the production for the London Festival Ballet, today's English National Ballet, in 1977. Eva Evdokimova danced Juliet in London and Paris, and the production was staged by La Scala Theater Ballet in 1980 and the Paris Opera Ballet in 1984. Its most recent ENB revival at the time of recording was in 2010, staged by Patricia Ruanne and Frederic Jahn from the original cast.
When was Prokofiev's original Romeo and Juliet score given its world premiere?
The original score, reconstructed from Moscow archives by musicologist Simon Morrison, received its world premiere on the 4th of July 2008. Mark Morris created the choreography, and the Mark Morris Dance Group performed it at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College in New York state. The production then toured to Berkeley, Norfolk, London, New York, and Chicago.
All sources
2 references cited across the entry
- 1newsRomeo and Juliet – The Australian BalletDecember 2011