Romeo and Juliet February 8 Old Cabell Hall, February 9 Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center
Celebrating its 50th season, the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia is busting out its big Shakespearean guns with bits from Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet of Romeo and Juliet.
Famously tinkering with the Bard’s failed teenage romance, Prokofiev and his co-librettists originally reimagined it with a happy ending, allowing the titular characters to simply plié away from Verona and the chaotic Capulet/Montague family’s BS, but the Soviet cultural police had other ideas, and strongarmed the story back to its tragic ending, like it or not. And thus, we have what has become one of the most famous and beloved 20th-century musical works based on one of the most famous and beloved 16th-century pieces of drama.
Orchestral to its very core, the lyrical score stands on its own even without the visual lure of ballet. Though slicing up the two-and-a-half-hour work may seem sacrilegious to some, Prokofiev himself presented sections of his masterwork, even suggesting 10 passages for piano that were performed for the public in the late 1930s. The beauty of focusing on the music—freed from those distracting dancers—means that listeners don’t have to worry about following the flow of the story. Given that the Soviets ensured the whole thing ends with two dead, horny youths, we can concentrate on the soundtrack; we all know where this is headed.
Published literature at press time obscures which of the selections are getting airtime during the pair of weekend performances, though it will be surprising if the orchestra’s Music Director Benjamin Rous doesn’t choose a few of the most revered tracks. There’s the back-and-forth rushing/pausing/no rushing again “Young Juliet” in its glittery whimsy; the rhythmic, festive thump of “Masks” (or “Masquers”) from the party scene where the teen lovers first lock eyes; and perhaps the most famous, the elephantine brass stomp and searing threatening violin drama of “Dance of the Knights.”
Filling out the program, Composition & Computer Technologies Ph.D. candidate Kristin Hauge’s “Morning Overture” opens the performances. Student musician bass-baritone Jack Siegel follows with a pocket show to share his take on three opera aria hits: “La vendetta” from The Marriage of Figaro, “Vecchia zimarra senti” from La Bohème, and “Votre toast” from Carmen.
