This is a superb production, thanks to Kenneth Macmillan's choreography, first performed in the 1960s with the peerless pairing of Nureyev and Fonteyn. The "beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear" of this Royal Ballet performance is Alessandra Ferri's Juliet. She looks lighter than air, and her astonishing technique is matched by her acting skills; she is both gawky and elegant, sometimes from one moment to the next. How does dance reflect Shakespeare's verse, letting movement replace the spoken word? Surprisingly clearly; Romeo and Juliet's mirrored dance steps take the place of the sonnet they compose together, and the ease and grace with which Juliet dances with Romeo, contrasted with the stilted formality of her dance with Paris, says it all. And Romeo's dance with Juliet's inert body is both macabre and unbearably poignant. Prokofiev's music is a star, too. The screechy violins express the barely-concealed violence of the Capulet-Montague brawl, and the dissonant chords break into even the lovers' tender pas de deux. I wish this production were available on video or DVD; my taped-from-cable copy is dying.
