Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
January 30, 2025
Varna International Ballet are presently back in the UK with another of their whistlestop tours. Full of young dancers, the company’s first night in Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall saw them perform Sergei Bobrov’s take on that perennial favourite, Romeo and Juliet.
While most certainly a romantic story about two people from opposite sides of the tracks who fall in love, Romeo and Juliet is also a tale haunted by death, which Bobrov emphasises throughout. The very first scene sees Mercutio enter wearing a death mask. Later, at the ball and still masked, he and four friends ‘entertain’ the assembled guests with a ‘Dance of Death’.
Ominous dark heralds also foreshadow the deaths of both Mercutio and Tybalt, four of them ‘pushing’ the latter to his end, but best comes at the end in the terrific crypt scene when a crowd of twenty chilling figures accompany Romeo and Juliet’s final moments. Reminiscent of something out of 1930s German Expressionism, they mimic Juliet as if mocking her before handing her the dagger with which she ends it all.
Photo Elliott Franks
That scene also has a neat twist in that Juliet awakens from her potion after Romeo has taken his poison but before he dies, allowing them a last dance together knowing that it is just that.
The production has just two acts, the interval somewhat oddly coming immediately before Romeo and Juliet’s secret marriage. The choreography runs from out-and-out classical to quite stylised. The forms do sometimes clash although overall the ballet is appealing and certainly gets better as the evening progresses.
There are some disappointments, however. The market place is not what you would call busy, and fight scenes are mostly rather tame, although that between Tybalt and Romeo is an exception. And too often the telling lacks punch and emotional heft. That’s a shame, because the four main characters are all rather well drawn.
The light on his feet, floppy haired Timofei Fedotov and charming Martina Prefetto made a fine leading couple who seemed genuinely excited to find themselves falling for each other. The balcony pas de deux, which here takes place in the garden, is full of sentiment but touching rather than dramatic. It’s quite naturalistic at times including some exhuberant jumps for joy and leaping into each other’s arms. And they don’t hang around. The first kiss comes very early with more and longer to follow. Unusually, the later Morning pas de deux is the more deeply emotion-filled and passionate.
Prefetto is sharing Juliet on the tour with Andrea Conforti, who just happens to be a graduate of the Balletto di Verona Academy. A neat link.
As Tybalt, the still only 19-year-old Danylo Motkov was the polar opposite of Fedotov’s Romeo: strutting, full of himself, always on the lookout for a fight in an angry teenager sort of way. Bedecked in deep red, he immediately impressed with high leaps and fast, clean turns.
While many productions have hinted at Lady Capulet’s sexual relationship with Tybalt, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it place as much to the fore as here. Bobrov doesn’t leave much room for doubt, both before and after his death.
Giacomo Ammazini was an animated, playful, jack-the-lad Mercutio. His taunting of Tybalt, blowing kisses while dressed in long skirt and bodice is a joy, even if it does lead rather swiftly to his death.
The leads were supported by an energetic corps. In the pit, the 21-piece orchestra under the baton of Peter Tuleshkov may have occasionally sounded a little thin but provided fine support. And how great to have live music.
The staging is basic, setting largely conveyed by means of projected backdrops, not of the greatest quality. Dmitry Tcherbadzhi’s costumes are effective in differentiating the two families by colour, and his death heralds skeletal black and white skeletal outfits are super. He throws an interesting curve ball at the ball when the ladies step out of their gowns to reveal themselves in fabulous leotards (we’re back to Expressionism).
Varna International Ballet continues on tour to March 5, 2025. Click here for dates and venues.