Roméo et Juliette (Review)

Roméo et Juliette

(Critique en français : Cliquez ici)

 

Director and Choreographer: Benjamin MILLEPIED

Artistic collaboration: Olivier SIMOLA

Scenography and Lights: François-Pierre COUTURE

Costumes : Camille ASSAF

Steadicam operator : Sébastien MARCOVICI

Music : Sergueï PROKOFIEV by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery GERGIEV

 

Starring

Doug BAUM, Marissa BROWN, Lorrin BRUKAKER, Jeremy COACHMAN, Courtney CONOVAN, Daphne FERNBERGER, David Adrian FREELAND JR., Mario GONZALEZ,
Oliver GREENE CRAMER, Sierra HERRERA, Leo HISHIKAWA, Payton JOHNSON, Shu KINOUCHI, Peter MAZUROWSKI, Vinicius SILVA
and Nayomi VAN BRUNT.

at La Seine Musicale until september 25, 2022

 

For a few days only Boulogne-Billancourt becomes Verona. We have been waiting for this Romeo and Juliet for a long time. We expected to be surprised. We were not disappointed!

Benjamin MILLEPIED offers us a contemporary work without taking the opposite: the ballet remains classical and resolutely modern at the same time.

For the world premiere, we had the version where Juliet is a man (the cast and the gender of the characters change at each performance). A choice that is not at all destabilizing since her interpreter keeps her masculine side, a feminine softness in her eyes in addition to her virility. And the looks, precisely, the play of the looks, their exchanges are of an unparalleled beauty. It is not only a game of dancers but a real play of actors highlighted by remarkable film techniques.

One is in awe of many scenes such as those of the ball or the balcony, to name but a few, where strength and elegance collide with bass notes that run through your body. Behind the violence of certain scenes, there is the lightness of the dance steps. On several occasions, we get a soft deflagration in the middle of a graceful and voluptuous sequence.

The space setting is, as for it, also exceptional, the hindrance of the stage frame and the proscenium disappear. All the spaces are used from the loading dock to the terrace and the backstage of the concert hall. Everything is done to bring a phenomenal dimension and depth to the evolutions of the corps de ballet. As if to tell us that love has no barriers. We witness a kind of gigantism that transcends the action and immerses the spectator in a surprising way in a terribly lively choreography.

The scenography offers to the show a magical atmosphere enhanced by an extraordinary lighting. One takes it full of eyes!

Sublime and wonderful… An evening of dreams to live at all costs !!!! Romeo and Juliet Suite is the first triple « coup de coeur » of the season!

 

 

Synopsis

In 2022, Benjamin MILLEPIED returns to France with a world premiere for La Seine Musicale. Accompanied by the L.A. Dance Project, the choreographer revisits the mythical story of Romeo and Juliet by William SHAKESPEARE. The protagonists are young adults from today’s urban world, confronted with social norms that make their union impossible. On stage, the plot of the star-crossed lovers evolves thanks to a unique projection device. Some scenes are projected live from unexpected places in the auditorium or backstage and make the dancers move from the stage to the screen.

A different cast each night, including variations of gender combinations, make this version a celebration of love in all its forms. In this show, Benjamin MILLEPIED mixes dance, cinema and theater and makes us rediscover a mythical story in a resolutely modern and singular version, sublimated by the music of PROKOFIEV.

 

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Aurélien.

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