Romeo and Juliet

 

   This is Spreckel's Theater waiting for the start of Romeo and Juliet by the City Ballet of San Diego. It was a great performance that I enjoyed very much. A friend considers San Diego ballet much like San Diego professional sports teams; second string. But this is only the fourth one I've been to so I had a great time.

   One of the best parts of the performance was the large orchestra having fun with Prokofiev's gorgeous music. The low brass had an especially great sound. The French Horns had a great sound also, but they stuttered a lot of their entrances. In band, horns are a middle voice rarely exposed, but in orchestra music they are front and center more than the other brass. Orchestral Horn players must be fearless and accurate.

   Except for one of the men not being in sync with the other guys he was dancing with, the dancers were excellent, especially Mercutio who seemed to be having the most fun. I think the weak link in the evening was the choreography that completely let down the dancers in the first market scene and the last tomb scene. 

   The ballet, like the play, opens with a market scene. There's a lot of walking, occasional running, across the stage, but except for three ladies who give us a few steps no one dances until Mercutio and two friends make their entrance several minutes into the performance. And in the final tomb scene the dancers are reduced to stumbling around the stage pretending to die. When the final current comes down the stage was littered with bodies grotesquely instead of two lovers who died tragically.