© Video Artists International This DVD is avilable from: DanceBooks Amazon Bolshoi 'Romeo' reviews 'Romeo' reviews? recent Bolshoi reviews Charlotte Kasner reviews

The production is categorically a film, rather than a filmed stage performance, and for viewers that prefer their ballet unadulterated, there are many other fine staged performances on DVD. This is in fact a surprisingly good film in its own right: leaving aside the inimicable performance of Ulanova, which I will return to in a moment, the film has ingredients of classic Hollywood movies of the era, even some undertones of ‘film noir’ in the flickering shadows, intriguing camera angles and frequent cut-away close-ups. It has a particularly effective opening as a storyboard cartoon townscape comes to life in the lushly filmed exteriors of Verona.

The film was, of course, a lavish vehicle for its star, Galina Ulanova, then 44 but clearly at the height of her unique expressive artistry and wholly in control of impeccable technique. Her stardom meant that the film could not possibly exist for 20 minutes without her presence, and so Juliet appears momentarily in the very first scene, drawing back the billowing curtains of her bedchamber and presciently gazing across the town to where her future beloved is reading: an idealised, romantic image foretelling the story to come, but not at all in keeping with Shakespeare’s intentions for his audience’s first taste of Romeo.

The film is doubly blessed since Yuri Zhdanov bestows matinee idol looks upon the film’s hero and the camera clearly loves this impassioned leading couple. Their duets are mesmerising: the balcony pas de deux takes place in Juliet’s imagination as she is surprised by Romeo’s sudden appearance from behind a pink rose bush, an iconic image of the film, the duet beginning as a special effect, superimposed onto the background; the bedchamber pas de deux is a long succession of powerful lifts which demonstrate Zhdanov’s immense strength, catching and holding Ulanova without any hint of extraneous movement. The speed of Ulanova’s footwork is always stunning, as if the film is suddenly fast forwarded every time she moves, and her technique is routinely flawless with solid pirouettes and a total elegance of line and body flight. The wedding scene includes some momentous arabesques en pointe, where Ulanova seems rooted to the spot forever. But despite all this, it’s her expression which remains unforgettable, unconsciously creating a series of chapter marks in the mind.
 

© Video Artists International

The most notable performance elsewhere in the cast comes from the wild-eyed Alexei Yermolayev, mixing devilish humour and a zeal for killing in a colourful comic-book interpretation of Tybalt. When we first meet him in the market place riot between the two families, he appears as some sort of pixie renegade from ‘Peter Pan’, despatching Montague’s men with a gleeful mania. In the scene that ends with his death, Yermolaev is wearing tights with one orange leg, the other blue, matched with an orange cape: his curly, ginger hair and manic stare make him look like a particularly demented version of Harpo Marx.

Mercutio’s demise is the blue riband of all death scenes and Sergei Koren’s hallucinatory death dance sets the standard for all others to emulate as the crowd follows his every step. Brilliant! On the other hand, there is some of the daftest stage fighting ever seen on film, made worse by the fact that the clashing metallic noise on the soundtrack is not in any way synchronised with the swinging blades on the screen.

This is, of course, a treasured memento of ballet history and we are all the better for being able to share it. Almost all of this cast were in the same roles when the Bolshoi conquered London on 3 October 1956 with their first night performance of ‘Romeo & Juliet’: in the major roles, only the colourful Yermolayev and the innocuous Kudryashov (as Benvolio) were not in place at Covent Garden, two years on.

As an added bonus, the DVD includes a sizeable excerpt of Ulanova (dancing with Sergeyev) in the White Swan pas de deux from ‘SwanLake’. In my view, these interpretations of both Juliet and Odile, should be mandatory viewing for every gymnastically-obsessed, modern ballet teacher. Ulanova had nothing like the range of movement and flexibility that is a minimum requirement from today’s gymnast dancers, long before technique and expression are ever a consideration, but she was a ballerina of the rarest and most exquisite quality, a fact that is attested to in every second that she appears on this DVD. It should be a must-have for everyone that loves ballet.