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St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Ballet opens its three-week London season with Leonid Lavrovsky’s 1940 Romeo and Juliet. It’s a ballet that runs at more than three hours long, dressed in heavy brocade and unflattering wigs, and it feels a bit turgid with age.
For Londoners used to Kenneth MacMillan’s masterful version for the Royal Ballet, this Romeo and Juliet seems flabbier and hammier — especially smugly arrogant Tybalt (Yuri Smekalov), seemingly modelled on Prince Charming from Shrek, and Vladimir Ponomarev’s theatrical Lord Capulet (even his eyebrows are up to something dastardly).
Aside from Prokofiev’s score — possibly the best ballet music ever — what’s great about this show are the leads. There’s Diana Vishneva as Juliet, swift and feather-like in her movement, wide-ranging in her interpretation. She has some lovely moments: dancing with Paris with faraway eyes as she plans to swallow the Friar’s potion; and the most tender moment, simply stroking Romeo’s hair as they sit on the edge of her bed. The excellent Vladimir Shklyarov plays Romeo with youthful sincerity and great scissoring jumps, throwing himself across the stage with abandon in the first flush of love.
But this production is not just about them, and it’s more concerned with spectacle than getting-under-your-skin storytelling. There’s too much grand scene-setting, too much filling in time while the hefty scenery is being changed; a lot of padding that detracts from any real emotion.
This is a great company of uniformly good dancers but not the best showcase for their talents.
Until Thursday (020 77304 4000, roh.org.uk)
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