ABT – Romeo and Juliet – 6/15

The final Romeo and Juliet of the season included some fine performances from the supporting cast but the performances of the principal cast were uneven.  While Roberto Bolle was a thoughtful Romeo of mostly fine lines, tidy turns, and faultless partnering, his Juliet, Julie Kent, was dry bordering on stale with a spine in need of a spritz of WD-40.  Although she was lovely when being carried and thrown around by Bolle, her individual dancing efforts showed strain and on a ocassion seemed more like marking of the steps. 

Nearly 44 years old, Kent has managed a long lasting career with a moderate amount of technical skill compared to the great ABT principals who came before her.  She may be the only one who doesn't recognize that it is past time for her to let go of repertory like Juliet, Odette/Odile, Giselle, Manon.  There are mid- and late-career ballerinas in the company who are ten or more years her junior but have yet to see their much deserved chances to dance important roles that Kent has been allowed to decline in over the past several years.  It is doubtful that many who follow the company closely would argue that they'd rather see Kent in yet another performance of Giselle instead of seeing Stella Abrera, Sarah Lane, or Yuriko Kayjia get a chance to shine.

Tonight the back of the orchestra level of the house was filled with a group of people who seemed primed to lead the audience with loud applause and who eagerly clapped and laughed at inappropriate points – such as when Mercutio and Tybalt dropped over dead.  It probably didn't matter to ABT who the people were who bought the discounted tickets or who sat in the seats for free, because giving the false appearance of a successfully sold house doesn't require either a loyal or interested audience.  It just requires butts in the seats.  Mainstreaming these people throughout the house instead of concentrating them in the back of the orchestra (and the back of the family circle) would have made them less distracting.

Craig Salstein and Blaine Hoven were excellent as Mercutio and Benvolio.  Their impressive virtuosity was unforced as was their camaraderie. Sascha Radetsky's Tybalt and Stella Abrera's Lady Capulet offered plenty of references to their characters' intimate storyline. When Lady Capulet marched upstage past Tybalt with her arms spread in front and behind her, he seemed to give her trailing hand a sniff as it went by him. At one point in Juliet's anteroom, it appeared as though these two were very tempted to cross the line before Roman Zhurbin's Lord Capulet entered and interrupted them. Radetsky's fencing was the best that Haglund can recall ever seeing in this production.

The three harlots, Misty Copeland, Simone Messmer, and Kristi Boone, showed supreme sass and spot-on spitting. 

MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet is such a riveting masterpiece.  Every character has his/her own distinctive dance vocabulary: the skipping and spitting harlots, the Martha Graham-inspired choreography for Lady Capulet, Mercutio's non-stop spinning, Benvolio's vertical jumps, the delicate pointe work of Juliet's friends – all very distinctive voices.  There's not much of that going on in choreography being made today.  It is, sadly, a lost part of the craft.  Everybody seems to do the same steps no matter who their character is.

The H.H. Pump Bump Award, a fierce gladiator stiletto from Sacha London, is bestowed upon Sascha Radetsky for his intense, richly drawn, and risky performance of Tybalt.

Comments

[Genna]

Kent was fine at her peak years, maybe nothing oustandingly special but she was a solid principal. Now it is time to not be dancing leads which require demanding technique and/ or youthful visage. Role of Juliet needs a ballerina with youthful face and spontaneity in movements, there are older dancers who luckily keep these traits throughout career. Kent is not one of them. Seems like to me a more likely reason for her continuing to dance Juliet, Manon is due to these roles being less technically demanding, notwithstanding the glaring unsuitability at her age.

[Angelica Smith]

I remember many years ago seeing a film of R&J with Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. Fonteyn looked radiant and youthful, until the camera went in for a close-up and you could really see the difference in their ages. By that time in the film, however, it didn't matter because you were so caught up in the dancing.

[Haglund]

Ferri could easily pull off Juliet and Manon right up until her retirement, which occurred at age 44. Her dancing was very youthful even though a "close up" of her face would have revealed a dancer closer to her actual age.