INFO
PROKOFIEV
Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet is Nacho Duato’s only choreography for the Compañía Nacional de Danza (CND) that has a score specifically composed for ballet and a libretto with detailed instructions for the dramatic development of the story.
In 1935, the work encountered a long list of “artistic” controversies that frustrated its premiere in Moscow. The various musical criticisms to the score (they were also dramatic ones) always converged in one: the music was not danceable. Over the years, the supposed rhythmic complexity and experimental nature attributed to the composition have been completely assimilated. Thus the challenge of this new production lay no longer in deciphering the music, but rather to take on, with a contemporary dance company, a creation that tells a “story”. From the perspective of musical direction, the task seemed at first glance similar to conventional ballet conducting. But the resemblance was only apparent. Nacho Duato’s choreography in each of its parts remained, as it was custom, detailed and personal. The real difference in comparison to his other ballets became simply that this was about four times longer.
The first representation of the new production in January 1998 was also my first collaboration as a conductor with the CND. It was always an enriching experience to re-enact the performance in different theatres with their respective orchestras. It was the last performance, exactly twenty years later, in 2018 with the Staatskapelle in the pit, at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, that brought us closest to the musical version we had always imagined.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Conductor: Pedro Alcalde
Orchestra: Bohemian Symphony Orchestra – for the premiere 1998
Music: Sergei Prokofiev
Choreography: Nacho Duato
Original libretto: Radlow, Pjotrkowsky, Lawrowsky and Prokofiev, based on the play by William Shakespeare
Libretto used: Nacho Duato, an adaptation in two acts of the original libretto
Original idea for Costumes, Set and Lighting: Nacho Duato
Set: Carles Pujol and Pau Rueda
Costumes: Lourdes Frías
Lighting: Nicolás Fischtel – based on an initial project by Miguel Ángel Camacho
Premiered by the Compañía Nacional de Danza (CND)
Venue: Palacio de Festivales Santander
Date: 8th January 1998
PERFORMANCES
08-01-98 Palacio de Festivales Santander Spain 3
14-01-98 Teatro Campoamor Oviedo Spain 2
22-01-98 Teatro Arriaga Bilbao Spain 4
29-01-98 Teatre Auditori Sant Cugat Spain 3
13-09-98 Teatro Real Madrid Spain 6
22-09-98 Opera de Lyon Lyon France 6
01-10-98 Saint Quentin Paris France 4
13-11-98 Teatro Maestranza Seville Spain 3
10-02-99 Teatre Auditori Sant Cugat Spain 3
29-05-99 Sherover Theatre Jerusalem Israel 4
04-02-00 Théâtre de le Havre Le Havre France 2
09-02-00 Théâtre Graslin Nantes France 7
26-05-01 Teatro Real Madrid Spain 3
12-07-01 Teatre del Liceu Barcelona Spain 5
09-05-02 Festspielhaus Recklinghausen Germany 4
30-05-08 Teatre Auditori Sant Cugat Spain 3
13-06-08 Teatro Carlo Felice Genoa Italy 5
22-11-08 Saitama Arts Theater Tokyo Japan 3
29-11-08 Biwako Hall Biwako Japan 1
20-06-18 Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin Germany 2
Total performances 73
VIDEO
PRESS
Sobriety and Elegance – Alcalde’s conducting is analytical in the first act, as sober and precise as the scene. It turns to the drama in the second act with authentic greatness, extracting the dramatic essence from the purified control of a sound that seeks the secret and interiorized heart of the score more than it does fireworks. With this, the sensation of true sound has a direct impact on the scene, and on many occasions, it even leads the performance.
In sum, the Madrid Symphony performed, in my opinion, the best performance since it has been in the Royal Theatre, with a strings section that knew how to sing with feeling (especially the violins and the cellos, although there could have been more body in the double basses). Above all, there was a sense of playing in a group that bodes well for the opera season ahead.
El País – Juan Ángel Vela del Campo (14-09-1998) pdf
But not only the look, the listen also attracts: Pedro Alcalde deliberately elicits delicate diminuendi from the Staatskapelle Berlin, he can decelerate very gently in the highest altitudes before he goes to the maximum with the dramatic rhythms. By the way, the 59-year-old Spaniard not only has music on it, but also a degree in philosophy, which you can even hear if you want to be subtle.
Ballet-Journal – Gisela Sonnenburg (24-06-2018) link
