“Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?”

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While in Dresden, we were given the amazing opportunity to attend the dress rehearsal for the ballet “Romeo and Julia” at the Semperoper before it premiered. It was choreographed by Stijn Celis and the dancing was beautiful.

Last year, I performed in the play “Romeo and Juliet” at school playing the part of Juliet. I studied the story in class so I had a good understanding of what was happening on stage. It was easy for me to recognize the characters and the storyline.

Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet.

The ballet was similar to our play because it had the same plot and characters but with little twists. There were also quite a few differences. The most prominent difference was there was no talking in the ballet so the dancers had to use their bodies and expressions to tell the story. They also used costuming to illustrate the roles of the characters.

For example, my uncle Fabien played the role of Tybalt.  He wore a black suit with black gloves, which made him look very sinister. His character was evil and his expression showed you wouldn’t want to mess with him. As the character Tybalt, Fabien danced and carried himself in an aggressive manner and glared menacingly at the other characters. He had incredible stage presence and I’m not just saying that because we’re family:)

Our uncle Fabien as Tybalt
Our uncle Fabien as Tybalt

The music used for the ballet was played by a live orchestra. It is one of the world’s best orchestras, according to Fabien, and I would agree with him. Crescendos and diminuendos were used to heighten the dramatic effect of what was happening in the performance. The night before when we went to the Bella Figura ballet, there was no orchestra so the pit was covered over. It was amazing to see the transformation of the theatre in just one night. Furthermore, after the rehearsal, Carmen was playing that evening and the set for that opera was ready to be moved in as soon as the rehearsal had finished.

When I see a performance I  know how much work is done to pull it all together. When we watched the dress rehearsal, we saw when the dancers got corrections from the director and stage manager. The orchestra used the rehearsal to make sure that they played at the right time for the dancers. There were only a few people in the audience so what we were witnessing was really unique.

As a lover of theatre and performances, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the ballet. It was even better since I knew a member of the cast and I already had a great understanding of what was happening.  If you get the chance to see this ballet, I would highly encourage it as it is amazing.

 


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Comments

6 responses to ““Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?””

  1. Trina Chiarelli Avatar
    Trina Chiarelli

    Lola here. Mikhaila I can’t even start by telling you how jealous I am. I want to see a ballet.

    1. Mikhaila Avatar

      Hey Lola,

      I think you would’ve really liked the ballet. I think the comp. dance team should see this ballet because it was amazing! 🙂

  2. Hi, Mikhaila, what a wonderful experience and your posting described everything so vividly, and I too am sooo jealous 🙂 I enjoyed this post very much. Thank you

    1. Mikhaila Avatar

      Hi Oma,

      I really enjoyed watching the ballet since we did Romeo and Juliet for school. It was an experience of a lifetime for me and I’m glad I was able to attend it.

  3. Hello Mikhaila,
    You were so lucky to be a part of this wonderful experience to see a family member playing a major role on a national stage! I enjoyed your pictures and commentary as well as the video! You are so right that he did look very sinister! He portrayed his character very well! I marvelled at his twists, turns and jumps! Keep up the wonderful blogs! Love, Baba

    1. Mikhaila Avatar

      Hello Baba,

      Fabien is an amazing dancer and it’s hard to remember that he is my uncle and not Tybalt! He is a great performer and I really enjoyed watching him dance.