Post by erik on Jan 1, 2022 18:46:51 GMT -5
Sergei Prokofiev's epic 20th century ballet adaptation of a great Shakespeare play is the first work to be studied in the Classical Works Spotlight in 2022.
Prokofiev: ROMEO AND JULIET (COMPLETE BALLET)
No tale of love has ever gripped the human heart quite like the one that William Shakespeare conceived in 1597 called Romeo And Juliet. The story of two star-crossed lovers whose families are involved in a bitter feud in Verona, Italy, the play has had many iterations in art, including a “dramatic symphony” by Berlioz; the famous symphonic tone poem/overture by Tchaikovsky; and many a film has been made from it, including a 1968 film version by Italian director Franco Zeffirelli (with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey as the doomed lovers), and the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim Broadway classic West Side Story, which set Shakespeare’s tale in the context of a New York City ethnic gang war. Sergei Prokofiev, one of the greatest composers to have come out of Russia after Tchaikovsky, also had his go at this timeless tale with his 1935 ballet, which became one of the most popular ballets of the 20th century. The idea originated in a synopsis given to the composer by Adrian Piotrovsky and Sergey Radlov; and Prokofiev took to it quite well. By this time, however, he was already something of a target for the dictates of the Soviet communist regime and its tin-eared dictator Joseph Stalin; and “Romeo And Juliet” didn’t get its world premiere in Russia, but in Brno, in the Czech Republic; the Russian premiere wasn’t until January 11, 1940, at the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Theater in St. Petersburg. Though the Soviet government was continuously irritated by the modernism of Prokofiev’s score, “Romeo And Juliet” managed to find its audiences, particularly on the other side of the Iron Curtain, in western Europe and the United States. Various suites of the music were assembled by Prokofiev for concert use, with such excerpts as “Dance Of The Knights”, “Gavotte” (an enlargement of the Gavotte from his Classical Symphony), and “Folk Dance” being especially popular.
Cleveland Orchestra/LORIN MAAZEL (London)
Prokofiev: ROMEO AND JULIET (COMPLETE BALLET)
No tale of love has ever gripped the human heart quite like the one that William Shakespeare conceived in 1597 called Romeo And Juliet. The story of two star-crossed lovers whose families are involved in a bitter feud in Verona, Italy, the play has had many iterations in art, including a “dramatic symphony” by Berlioz; the famous symphonic tone poem/overture by Tchaikovsky; and many a film has been made from it, including a 1968 film version by Italian director Franco Zeffirelli (with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey as the doomed lovers), and the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim Broadway classic West Side Story, which set Shakespeare’s tale in the context of a New York City ethnic gang war. Sergei Prokofiev, one of the greatest composers to have come out of Russia after Tchaikovsky, also had his go at this timeless tale with his 1935 ballet, which became one of the most popular ballets of the 20th century. The idea originated in a synopsis given to the composer by Adrian Piotrovsky and Sergey Radlov; and Prokofiev took to it quite well. By this time, however, he was already something of a target for the dictates of the Soviet communist regime and its tin-eared dictator Joseph Stalin; and “Romeo And Juliet” didn’t get its world premiere in Russia, but in Brno, in the Czech Republic; the Russian premiere wasn’t until January 11, 1940, at the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Theater in St. Petersburg. Though the Soviet government was continuously irritated by the modernism of Prokofiev’s score, “Romeo And Juliet” managed to find its audiences, particularly on the other side of the Iron Curtain, in western Europe and the United States. Various suites of the music were assembled by Prokofiev for concert use, with such excerpts as “Dance Of The Knights”, “Gavotte” (an enlargement of the Gavotte from his Classical Symphony), and “Folk Dance” being especially popular.
Cleveland Orchestra/LORIN MAAZEL (London)