'Romeo and Juliet' at the Royal Opera House

Kenneth MacMillan's 'Romeo and Juliet' is a staple in the programme of the Royal Ballet and it's rather special to me. I saw Steven McRae and Iana Selenko dance the title roles three years ago and that production made me finally 'get' ballet and fall in love with it. O yes, it's that personal to me. I saw the John Cranko version of 'Romeo and Juliet', choreographed a few years before MacMillan's, when I was in Boston last year danced by the Boston Ballet at the Boston Opera House and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I prefer the MacMillan version.

The ballet is back in the programme for this years' season at the Royal Opera House so, naturally, I bought tickets. Steven McRae was due to dance the title role again but sadly injured his knee so our lovers were Akane Takada as Juliet and Ryoichi Hirano as Romeo. I've seen Akane dance in 'Manon', 'Mayerling' and as the swan in last summer's glorious version of 'Swan Lake' and seen Ryiochi dance in 'Nutcracker' and in 'Frankenstein'. They both have excellent track records. There aren't any production photos of them dancing the current roles, unfortunately.

We all know the story. Romeo Montague is a lad about town, stirring up trouble with the rival house of Capulet and hanging out with the Happy Strumpets in the marketplace, and then, after blagging their way into a Capulet masked ball to show off Juliet they see each other and fall in love. That starts the tragedy - how can the young lovers from rival houses possibly marry? They marry in secret and share one night of love before Romeo must run and hide since he killed Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, in revenge for the cousin killing Romeo's best friend, Mercutio. Juliet's parents press her to marry the hapless Paris so she feigns committing suicide. And Romeo, ah if only he'd waited another few minutes.

It's a tale of love and joy and tragedy and along the way we meet other characters in Verona. We meet Mercutio, Romeo's best mate and great sword-fencer. We see the Montague (white tights) and Capulet (red tights) gangs sword-fencing in the marketplace and end up with a pile of dead bodies so that the Prince of Verona has to intervene to stop them. This is proper fencing too, fully choreographed of course, but it's very exciting to see all the lads slashing at each other and jumping and bouncing all over the place! Sadly Mercutio and Tybalt also fence later in the ballet and Mercutio is slain, stabbed in the back by Tybalt so Romeo takes swift revenge.

We also meet the Happy Strumpets - the cast list rather casually calls them 'Three Harlots' but I prefer my name for the three lasses. Lead strumpet was a surprise to me - Itziar Mendezibal! I've seen Itziar dance several times, always with so much grace and poise and she was fabulous as Paulina in 'The Winters' Tale' a couple of years ago so it was lovely to see her in a more knock-about role teasing Romeo and the others with her undoubted charms. Romeo is no longer interested after he's met Juliet but I'm pleased he knew the Strumpets.

There is a gorgeous range of dancing in this ballet, from the energetic sword fencing scenes to the joyous pas de deux of the love scenes and our leads did themselves proud. Akane was great as Juliet, so elegant and graceful, moving from being the child at the start of the ballet to the poised young women of later scenes. Ryoichi also did great dancing, spurring on his comrades in trouble-making and worshipping Juliet. But, for me, Steven and Iana remain the definitive lovers - Akane didn't quite capture the child at the start and Ryoichi didn't have the same level of characterisation as Steven (but, to be fair, he didn't have the same time to practice the role). I also really liked James Hay as a very bouncy Mercutio and Bennet Gartside as Tybalt. It's a masterful ballet and a great production and odd to realise that this was MacMillan's first full length ballet - he was truly inspired when he choreographed it!

If you want to try out seeing a full ballet you could do a lot worse than choose this one. It's playing until June and will be broadcast live to cinemas on 11 June - try it? You never know, you might actually like it!

'Romeo and Juliet' at the Boston Opera House

I have history with the 'Romeo and Juliet' ballet. It was the first full-length ballet that I'd ever seen and it's the one that made me fall in love with the art form. I saw the Macmillan version danced by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House - Steven McRae was Romeo and Iana Salenko was Juliet and they'll be the benchmark for every performance I see. So when I saw that the Boston Ballet was dancing the John Cranko version during my trip to Boston I had to get a ticket. And I'm so pleased that I did. The story is the same but the telling is different.

The Boston Opera House is rather unimpressive from the outside, with a narrow entrance corridor to get into the theatre proper. Then the glass and the gold and the lights start gleaming and you realise you're somewhere posh. I went upstairs to the balcony to find the Mezzanine seating and the very friendly ushers showed me to my seat with a perfect view of the very wide stage, perfect for leaping and jumping.

The lights dimmed and the curtain rose as the gorgeous score started and there was an empty stage with the marketplace scenery in place but where was the market? This was the first of the changes I noticed between the Macmillan and the Cranko versions of the ballet. In Cranko, the market is gradually populated rather than being ready and working when we join it. There are lots of little changes in the telling of the story but I was pleased that the three Happy Strumpets were still central to the market scenes (including throwing fruit in defence of Romeo).

Romeo loves a lady but dallies with the Happy Strumpets when we're introduced to the rivalry between the noble houses of Capulet and Montague. Our hero defies convention with his chums by going to the rival house's ball where he sees Juliet for the first time and is entranced by her. They fall in love. But Juliet's brother isn't happy and seeks a fight with Romeo and challenges him to a duel which he declines since he can't possibly fight his future brother-in-law. Mercutio saves their honour by taking up the glove but is sadly killed so Romeo must seek revenge and kills Tybalt. Disaster. The lovers marry in secret and spend one night together and dance their love. The next day Juliet just marry the man chosen for her but she gets a potion from her priest that will render her dead for a time but Romeo finds her dead and kills himself. Juliet comes to and sees her lover dead and commits suicide herself.

The dancing was excellent, the costumes and ensemble moments were great and it was fun watching out for the Cranko moments. One of the things I noticed early on was a dance move by the men where they held their knees together and moved their feet rather than their bodies - clearly one of his signature moves since it cropped up a few times. The ensemble moves were good too, with all those dancers moving in unison in their astonishing costumes.

Paulo Arrais was our Romeo and Misa Kuranaga was our Juliet and both gave top notch performances. I particularly liked the 'one of the lads' moments when lord Romeo joshed with his mates - that was really effective. I'd also single out Derek Dunn as Mercutio who brought his personality and acting to the role as well as some astonishing dancing. He ought to look to the Royal Ballet for his next career move.

I really enjoyed this production with excellent staging, costumes and, of course, dancing. While I'm delighted to have seen this production I think the Macmillan version is better and Steven and Iana remain my Romeo and Juliet.

'The Nutcracker' by The Royal Ballet at The Royal Opera House

What could be more Christmassy than seeing 'The Nutcracker' at the grand Royal Opera House with enormous Christmas trees and sparkly garlands wrapped around the pillars outside? O yes, the look of the place raises the ante for the show and it delivered to all my expectations. What a wonderful show!

I've seen Matthew Bourne's interpretation of the story a couple of times and loved it, but this was my first viewing of the 'traditional' show and featured the choreography of Peter Wright. And what a marvellous show it was too, perfect for Christmas, especially since it's set at Christmas.

It's Christmas Eve and Clara is given the Nutcracker, a toy that contains the soul of Hans-Peter, the magician and toy-maker's nephew. She creeps downstairs after the party to make sure the toy is all right and is transported to a magical world as the Christmas Tree grows and grows and the toy soldiers battle with the mice and their king. Clara and the Nutcracker prevail to be transported to the Land of Snow with ballerina's as snowflakes filling the stage. After the half-time we go to the court of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Prince for some grand entertainments before returning to Clara's home before dawn and, astonishingly, Hans-Peter is now free from the Nutcracker and loans Clara his cape to protect her from the snow and cold. Our hero is safe and who knows what might happen in the future…

I loved this production! The magic and beauty of the whole thing, the enormous Christmas Tree growing and growing as Clara shrinks, the wonderful snowflakes and then the Fairy and her Prince. O wow. Once again, it drives home to me that ballet isn't just a load of athletic young people doing their stuff on stage, it's the whole production - the music, the dance, the sets, the costumes, the lighting and the whole atmosphere of the thing that ignites the Art.

I loved our heroes in Francesca Hayward as Clara and Alexander Campbell as the Nutcracker, Gary Avis as the magician with his swirling cloak and the lovely Iana Salenko and Steven McRae as the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Prince (who were also my Romeo and Juliet). Thank you Royal Ballet for introducing me to 'The Nutcracker' and welcoming in Christmas!

'Monotones I & II / Two Pigeons' at the Royal Opera House

Last week we went to see more ballet at the Royal Opera House, this time a couple of abstract, non-narrative works set to the wonderful music of Erik Satie - Monotones I & II - and 'Two Pigeons', a tale of love and loss and finding your love again. And there really are pigeons. Both were performed by the Royal Ballet. Sitting in the Amphitheatre gives you a spectacular, panoramic view totally unobstructed to drink in the sights in front of you, both in the orchestra and on the stage. My eyes stay on the stage.

It's always a delight to go into the wonderful Royal Opera House, with it's plush reds and golds, high ceilings and ultra-polite staff. Walking through the champagne bar and up the escalator to the Amphitheatre bar with it's dramatic views over the champagne bar on one side and out into the open-air balcony over-looking Covent Garden on the other. A Covent Garden now lit up with Christmas lights and a rampant reindeer at the entrance to the market. I'm quietly looking forward to seeing the Royal Opera House decked out in its Christmas finery in December, I bet it will look most fab.

'Monotones' are two short ballets danced back to back, the first featuring two men and one woman, and the second with two women and one man. Three dancers in each, the first three wearing light green costumes and the second wearing white. Dramatic movement and lighting means you never know what they'll do next, pulling dramatic shapes and then holding the pose. The gentle piano music of Erik Satie was a marvellous accompaniment to the two ballets. 'Monotone I' is danced to 'Trois Gnossiennes' and 'Monotone II' is danced to 'Trois Gymnopedies', both pieces very calming and restful as the dancers move and gyrate. I suspect most people reading this will have heard at least the main theme of 'Gymnopedies' but 'Gnossiennes' was new to me and I liked it.

The dancers in 'Monotone I' could probably have done with another few days of rehearsal, not always properly synchronised and a bit wobbly when on one leg, but it was lovely to watch. I preferred the perfection of 'Monotone II', opening with the ballerina standing on pointe on one leg with the other at 180 degrees straight up, being slowly turned by the two men dancers before lifting and moving her around the stage. It was a great to watch the elegance and poise of the dancers taking up the whole stage to the strains of Satie's lovely music.  Lots of clapping for the six dancers at the end.

After the interval it was time for the opening act of 'Two Pigeons', opening in the artist's garret in Paris while he tries to paint a fidgeting girl in a white tutu. He gives up and sulks while she tries to catch his attention and then some neighbours come a-calling to further prevent him working. And two pigeons fly across the window. Then appears a troupe of gypsies in colour clothes along with a gypsy girl who attracts his attention. He is captivated by her vitality and energetic dancing, so much more alive than the girl he was trying to paint, wild and brash, unafraid of life. The gypsies all leave and the artist grabs his cloak to follow, leaving the girl alone in the garret studio.

The second half moves the action to the gypsy camp and a wild party with energetic dancing from everyone as the artist and the girl's lover have a dance-off for her attentions. The artist loses both the dance-off and the girl. The final scene sees the artist walking down the steps to his garret where his former girl is still waiting for him. He has a pigeon on his shoulder and offers it to her before placing it on the back of a chair.  I thought it was a false pigeon since it was so still, and then it moved - a trained pigeon indeed. And then the second one flew across the stage to land beside the first on the back of the chair - what a lovely, magical surprise! And our two lovers are united again. Clap clap clap!

It was a lovely production, moving between wild and joyous to quiet and contemplative as the dancers tell their story. I liked Iana Salenko as the girl and Steven McRae as the artist and saw both of them dancing as Romeo and Juliet a few weeks ago, making a nice pairing again. I also liked Fumi Kaneko who danced up a storm as the gypsy girl. I also liked the pigeons that provided a wonderful surprise - how do you train a pigeon? The final scene was lovely to see, the artist and his love together with the two pigeons of the title. More clap clap clapping.

'Romeo & Juliet' at the Royal Opera House

I've been to the ballet a few times and enjoyed it but I've never seen a full length, tradional ballet so last night was the chance put that right when we went to see 'Romeo & Juliet' at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. It's always exciting to go into the plush Royal Opera House and this is the Royal Ballet's 50th anniversary production of the Kenneth Macmillan interpretation of the Shakespeare play. It was wonderful to see - why didn't I see this 30 years ago? It's danced to Prokofiev's marvellous score with some wonderful themes swirling round the theatre, drifting off only to reappear again later. A colourful production full of dashing movement set to that music and with a classic story, what more could you want?

It opens in the busy market-place of Verona with our hero, Romeo, being a Jack-the-lad with the local girls and, when his friends arrive, start taunting the enemy house of Capulet. This results in a full-on battle with sword-fencers darting here and there across the stage including a great synchronised sword-fencing section where they were all in time with each other. It was all terribly energetic and skilfully done, I was most impressed! The Montague's in white tights and Capulet's in red tights so it was easy to see who was who. You could easily hear those swords clashing and scraping - this was realistic stuff.

It's a while before we meet Juliet but the dancing makes it plain that she is a young girl with her bouncing around the stage and into her nurse's lap - she's 13 after all. Her parents have lined her up to marry and introduce her to 'society' at a ball in her honour at which the Montague lads sneak in and Romeo is smitten. Hard. They dance. And fall in love. When they sneak off to a church to marry I couldn't help but think, 'That's it, you've sealed your fates now…'. They were lovely together, dancing the dawning of their love, expressing their feelings and their need to be one. It was delightful.

Of course, we all know it goes wrong with Juliet faking suicide to avoid another marriage, Romeo believing she's dead and taking his own life just as Juliet wakes up. Such a cruel ending that ramps up the tension. So sad.

This was a great production and I'm so pleased I saw it. It struck me in the first half that I should have seen this 30 years ago and then I would've seen so many great productions over those 30 years rather than seeing it for the first time now.  If only. Telling the story through dance worked so well and it was easy to follow and get wound up in the tale of love and sadness. Some of the dances were particularly touching like when Romeo and Juliet dance after waking up on the morning after their first (and only) night together. Their love is so strong but Romeo must leave, a very tender scene.

It was nice to meet a range of characters who aren't in the play but who add some fun and another angle to the ballet, such as the Happy Strumpets as I named them ('Three Harlots' in the cast list but I prefer strumpets, thank you). They were great fun and fearless and everyone should know a strumpet. I'm pleased that Romeo knew the Happy Strumpets.

Our Juliet was Iana Salenko and Romeo was Steven McRae, a joyous coupling. Alexander Campbell was Mercutio and Thomas Whitehead was Tybalt, the warring enemies that set Romeo on the track to killing Tybalt. It's all so sad and so unnecessary. They were all great, energetic dancing and acting, the cockiness of the lads, making it all come alive in front of us. The set, the costumes, the lighting all came together to provide a very special experience - I loved it.