Grigorovich 'Romeo' reviews Yin in reviews Kniazkova in reviews recent Ballet Grigorovich reviews more Trog reviews

The set is one feature that I did like. Very understated. At the back is a painted flat of two castle towers, each with an arched doorway. Between these two is hung a gauze. The area between the towers forms a raised stage. A fading blackout is lowered to change the sets, thus in the extreme back we get Juliet's bedroom, her tomb, Friar Laurence's cell and the all important balcony. This left the main stage free for the big dances, such as the ballroom scene and the pdd's. These start on the raised section, before spilling over to the main stage.

Again these dancers are unknown to me. For the record, Dayong Yin as Romeo, was OK but not spectacular. He has the look being young. Tybalt was Sergei Barannikov, a tall chap with the most awful blue eye makeup, which had clearly been applied with a trowel. While watching his performance I felt that he would make a good von Rothbart or perhaps Drosselmeyer. He has the right air of menace for these characters. Lo and behold, his biography says he dances both of these roles. Me thinks I've been watching too much ballet!

Mercutio was danced with exactly the right amount of ham factor by Vadim Slatvitsky. He executes some very tidy turns, but he could have done with a bit more bravura in his acting, especially in his final confrontation with Tybalt. Paris was Nikolai Morschakov, whom I saw as Crassus the other day. Paris isn't really much of a role, but I do like the look of him (Mr M that is).

Finally to Elena Kniazkova, gorgeous as Juliet. She is wonderful to look at (lovely dimples!). Her courus are on a par with those of Leticia Muller, both ladies seeming to glide across the stage as if floating on a cloud. (This being entirely point to pointe.) Her opening solo immediately revealed she is a consumate actress. She deserved the bouquets that were thrown onto the stage at the end. (OK so they were thrown by the ballet company; if I had known she was going to be that good, I would have taken some flowers in with me). The balcony pdd was a definite highpoint in this production. Very romantic and well received by the audience. There was also a very good pd3 with the ghosts of Tybalt and Mercutio. I would like to see more of this most engaging lady.

The live orchestra were under the baton of Alexander Lavrenyuk, their music director. He is a former dancer apparently. Sitting in the front row I could audibly hear him "dum-dum-dumming" away to parts of the score. I thought I heard something during Spartacus but I had decided that my ears were playing tricks on me. Clearly they weren't. I wonder how often other conductor's hum along to the score? This was the Prokofiev score. I was rather hoping it would have been the Tchaikovsky version, but I guess there isn't enough of it to mount a full ballet.

I have seen R&J quite a lot and something finally struck me today. Juliet drinks the fake poison and is lying in her tomb. Romeo enters, see her, drinks the poison and colapses. Juliet awakens, sees him and stabs herself with his knife. Persumably Romeo will wake up later and have to kill himself all over again. The poor sod!

In the audience I spotted Yuri Grigorovich and several other people clearly associated with the company, keeping a watchful eye on things. I missed out on getting the autograph of one of the ballet world's legends. (He scarpered before I could get to him.)