Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2, Op. 64
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Montagues and Capulets; The child Juliet; Friar Laurence; Dance; Romeo and Juliet before parting; Dance of the girls with lilies; Romeo at Juliet's tomb
Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet ‘Romeo and Juliet’ adheres closely to the story line of William Shakespeare’s play, which makes it quite lengthy at about two and a half hours. Because the Bolshoi Ballet of the Soviet era had difficulty in accepting the narrative basis of the work, preferring tableaux and divertissements, Prokofiev’s ballet had to be premièred in 1938 at Brno, in the present Czech Republic, rather than in Moscow. Prokofiev sustained the sense of story-telling by using leitmotivs which are musical motifs associated with characters or situations. We may not notice them much because this is one of several works that Prokofiev created out of musical material from the original ballet. None of these offshoots tells the whole story, so the musical clues, the leitmotivs identified in the first instance, now tend to be scattered. Even so, the titles of the movements remain, showing where individual scenes had featured in the staged version.
The Second Suite opens with harsh dissonance, anticipating the agony of the tragedy to come. The ensuing musical elements include a striding theme, suggestive of young men from the opposing families strutting arrogantly across the stage, interrupted by a sighing melody, possibly contrasting love with aggression. ‘The child Juliet’ also suggests opposites, here a juvenile skittishness and a nascent sensual awareness. She was only 14, after all. The almost hymn-like ‘Friar Laurence’ is pursued by a foot-tapping dance, featuring harmonic and melodic angularity while retaining an attractive tunefulness. The scene for ‘Romeo and Juliet before parting’ is touching in its calm innocence, punctuated by hints of pain and disquiet. The ‘Dance of the girls with lilies’ provides a short respite before the agony of the final scene. Let us remind ourselves that Juliet took a sleeping draught to feign death, hoping then to flee Verona with Romeo. Their confidant, Friar Laurence, sent a message to Romeo in Mantua, informing him that when he returns to Verona, he will find the comatose Juliet lying on her family tomb, placed there by her grieving parents. That message didn’t arrive. Now back in Verona, and seeing Juliet lying motionless, Romeo assumed her sleep to be death. In despair, he poisoned himself. When she awoke to find her lover truly dead, Juliet killed herself with a dagger. The music recalls some of the memorable motifs used earlier in the ballet but, in its final moments, it dwells solely on this denouement of tragedy, agony and despair.
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Montagues and Capulets; The child Juliet; Friar Laurence; Dance; Romeo and Juliet before parting; Dance of the girls with lilies; Romeo at Juliet's tomb
Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet ‘Romeo and Juliet’ adheres closely to the story line of William Shakespeare’s play, which makes it quite lengthy at about two and a half hours. Because the Bolshoi Ballet of the Soviet era had difficulty in accepting the narrative basis of the work, preferring tableaux and divertissements, Prokofiev’s ballet had to be premièred in 1938 at Brno, in the present Czech Republic, rather than in Moscow. Prokofiev sustained the sense of story-telling by using leitmotivs which are musical motifs associated with characters or situations. We may not notice them much because this is one of several works that Prokofiev created out of musical material from the original ballet. None of these offshoots tells the whole story, so the musical clues, the leitmotivs identified in the first instance, now tend to be scattered. Even so, the titles of the movements remain, showing where individual scenes had featured in the staged version.
The Second Suite opens with harsh dissonance, anticipating the agony of the tragedy to come. The ensuing musical elements include a striding theme, suggestive of young men from the opposing families strutting arrogantly across the stage, interrupted by a sighing melody, possibly contrasting love with aggression. ‘The child Juliet’ also suggests opposites, here a juvenile skittishness and a nascent sensual awareness. She was only 14, after all. The almost hymn-like ‘Friar Laurence’ is pursued by a foot-tapping dance, featuring harmonic and melodic angularity while retaining an attractive tunefulness. The scene for ‘Romeo and Juliet before parting’ is touching in its calm innocence, punctuated by hints of pain and disquiet. The ‘Dance of the girls with lilies’ provides a short respite before the agony of the final scene. Let us remind ourselves that Juliet took a sleeping draught to feign death, hoping then to flee Verona with Romeo. Their confidant, Friar Laurence, sent a message to Romeo in Mantua, informing him that when he returns to Verona, he will find the comatose Juliet lying on her family tomb, placed there by her grieving parents. That message didn’t arrive. Now back in Verona, and seeing Juliet lying motionless, Romeo assumed her sleep to be death. In despair, he poisoned himself. When she awoke to find her lover truly dead, Juliet killed herself with a dagger. The music recalls some of the memorable motifs used earlier in the ballet but, in its final moments, it dwells solely on this denouement of tragedy, agony and despair.