# What is this ballet I saw?



## adriesba

I'm confused.

Back in 2016 I saw this ballet production of _Romeo and Juliet _performed by this company called Moscow Festival Ballet which came to the local theater.

It was a one act ballet, so not very long. For whatever reason, I didn't think much about it then, but now I'm wondering where in the world this ballet came from.

This is what the program said:



> *ROMEO AND JULIET
> 
> *AFTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDY
> Full-length Ballet
> Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
> Choreography by Elena Radchenko based on
> sketches by Marius Petipa
> Sets and costumes by Elena and Sergey Radchenko
> Libretto by Elena and Sergey Radchenko



Music by Tchaikovsky? What music would they have used? What is this?


----------



## Rogerx

I only know : Tchaikovsky: Romeo & Juliet - Fantasy Overture, no idea if that's it.


----------



## Marsilius

The dancer and choreographer Serge Lifar created a 20-minutes long version of R & J set to a complete performance of Tchaikovsky's piece of that name. It is available on DVD in a vintage performance that's reviewed here:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Aug/Ballets_Francais_4583.htm


----------



## RICK RIEKERT

adriesba said:


> I'm confused.
> 
> Back in 2016 I saw this ballet production of _Romeo and Juliet _performed by this company called Moscow Festival Ballet which came to the local theater.
> 
> It was a one act ballet, so not very long. For whatever reason, I didn't think much about it then, but now I'm wondering where in the world this ballet came from.
> 
> This is what the program said:
> 
> ​
> Music by Tchaikovsky? What music would they have used? What is this?


Choreographer Elena Radchenko used some parts of Tchaikovsky's fantasy-overture _Romeo and Juliet_ and the _Pathétique Symphony_ to create the full one-act ballet which premiered in 2010.


----------



## adriesba

RICK RIEKERT said:


> Choreographer Elena Radchenko used some parts of Tchaikovsky's fantasy-overture _Romeo and Juliet_ and the _Pathétique Symphony_ to create the full one-act ballet which premiered in 2010.


So the choreography is a bunch of stuff by Petipa strung together? I remember there was some odd choreography in the bedroom scene.


----------



## adriesba

I found this page with information:
http://radchenko-ballet.com/en/romeo-and-juliet/

I also found a video of it. This is just how I remember it, including the weird choreography in the bedroom scene. I wonder if the odd bits were things that were Radchenko's idea. The staging and all are so familiar. The production I saw must have used the exact same sets or exact copies, wow.


----------



## Guest

Oh dear me: what a dog's breakfast that production is!!


----------



## adriesba

Christabel said:


> Oh dear me: what a dog's breakfast that production is!!


What about it in particular resembles a dog's breakfast? The part where they roll on the floor? Lol :lol:


----------



## CristianRey

"Sketches by Marius Petipa". Oh dear...
Please explain. I'm totally lost here...


----------



## adriesba

CristianRey said:


> "Sketches by Marius Petipa". Oh dear...
> Please explain. I'm totally lost here...


Marius Petipa was a well known choreographer who came up with dances for many ballets including the original choreography for Tchaikovsky's three ballets, though that doesn't mean that every production today uses what Petipa originally came up with. The program means that Radchenko supposedly used sketches of dances by Petipa.

I hope that answers your question.


----------



## CristianRey

Oh...I didn't make myself clear. I know very well Monsieur Petipa's pivotal play within the Imperial Russian Ballet. I've been a balletomanne for quite a few years. What I don't get is how on earth Petipa's name came into this R&J production, given that by the time Prokofiev wrote the music for the ballet in 1938 Petipa had been dead for quite a bit of time. Since 1910 to be exact.


----------



## adriesba

CristianRey said:


> Oh...I didn't make myself clear. I know very well Monsieur Petipa's pivotal play within the Imperial Russian Ballet. I've been a balletomanne for quite a few years. What I don't get is how on earth Petipa's name came into this R&J production, given that by the time Prokofiev wrote the music for the ballet in 1938 Petipa had been dead for quite a bit of time. Since 1910 to be exact.


Oh, I see. No, this is not Prokofiev's _Romeo and Juliet_. This is Radchenko's own creation that apparently uses music by Tchaikovsky and some sketches by Petipa. What exactly the sketches are I don't know. The music is apparently some sort of mishmash of Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony and _Romeo and Juliet fantasy_.


----------



## CristianRey

I should had payed more attention to the original post. "Radchenko" is all we need to clarify this "Sketches by Petipa" story. Apparently, ideas for a ballet set to Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" symphonic poem and his "Sixth Symphony" were discovered a few years ago in the archives of the Bolshoi Theatre. Elena Radchencko, a former Bolshoi principal dancer who has been Russian Classical Ballet's artistic director for a while, found the 1893 sketches and decided to stage this "Romeo and Juliet" for her company. O believe it premiered some years ago during a US tour.


----------



## Dimace

Christabel said:


> Oh dear me: what a dog's breakfast that production is!!


Agree! Unacceptable... Something to laugh and to cry.


----------



## Rogerx

Christabel said:


> Oh dear me: what a dog's breakfast that production is!!


Matter of taste, we can't be al so picky.


----------



## Auntie Lynn

I think Eglevsky set R&J to the same Tchai music, a local troupe did it years ago. You also have Sergei, Berlioz and Tipton out there doing the same thought.


----------

