I DREAM’D A DREAM TO-NIGHT
The National Ballet of Canada (TNBC), which presented its thrilling rendition of Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 2012, returned to the Music Center last night with a gloriously Technicolor production of Romeo and Juliet, commissioned by TNBC’s artistic director, Karen Kain (the world premiere played in Toronto in 2011). Even with a gazelle-like Guillaume Côté as Romeo and the sensitive and lovely Elena Lobsanova as Juliet, this production is all about the story. Indeed, there are as many Juliets in this run as there are performances (four) and the rest of the expressive ensemble is double or triple cast (although I have to wonder how anyone can top the high-flying Piotr Stanczyk as Mercutio).
With a cogent collision of classical and contemporary choreography both consequential and comic, Alexei Ratmansky’s character-rich rendition offers a coherent three-act narrative, exciting swordplay, and three exquisite pas de deux for the star-cross’d young lovers. Combined with Richard Hudson’s sumptuous color-drenched Renaissance-inspired sets and costumes (dreamily lit by Jennifer Tipton), and Prokofiev’s score played by a live orchestra led by TNBC’s principal conductor David Briskin, this Glorya Kaufman Dance presentation is packed with emotion, adventures, and ecstasies. Along with Ballet Preljocaj’s Snow White at the Music Center in 2012, Romeo and Juliet sets the standard for narrative ballets visiting Los Angeles.
photos by Bruce Zinger
Romeo and Juliet
National Ballet of Canada
presented by Glorya Kaufman Dance
at the Music Center
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave.
scheduled to end on July 13, 2014
for tickets, call (213) 972-0711
or visit www.musiccenter.org