A Suite from Romeo and Juliet

Montagues and Capulets 

Juliet the Young Girl 

Madrigal 

Minuet 

Romeo and Juliet 

Death of Tybalt 

Friar Laurence 

Romeo at Juliet's before parting 

Prokofiev’s music for Romeo and Juliet has always had a life in the concert hall. Although it was eventually recognised as the greatest ballet score by any Russian composer since Tchaikovsky – and the most inspired of all ballets on a Shakespearean theme – it was initially rejected by both of the leading Soviet theatres, the Kirov (Leningrad) in 1935 and the Bolshoi (Moscow) in 1936. The composer’s reaction to the setback was to compile a Romeo and Juliet concert suite, which was first performed with much success in Moscow in November 1936.

The ballet still not having reached the stage by the following year, Prokofiev put together not only a second orchestral suite of seven dances, for Leningrad this time, but also set of ten piano pieces which he himself introduced to the audience in Moscow. The strategy was effective at least in that, by a quirk of history, it led to a staging of the ballet by the Yugoslav National Ballet in Brno in Czechoslovakia in 1938. It was not seen in Russia, however, until the Kirov condescended to present it in 1940 and, although the Kirov version was also performed in Moscow, the Bolshoi mounted its own production only in 1946 – in anticipation of which Prokofiev compiled the third and last of his Romeo and Juliet orchestral suites.

Like the composer’s second suite, the present selection begins dramatically with The Montagues and the Capulets and the fateful succession of chords which accompany the Prince’s warning to the two feuding families: “If ever you disturb our streets again,/Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.” The scene changes to the ball at the house of the Capulets, where the knights dance in aggressively heavy-footed rhythms and where Juliet dances with Paris to a graceful variant of the same Capulet theme, gliding with the flute on viola glissandi and turning in quietly expressive chromatic harmonies.

Juliet the Young Girl comes from somewhat earlier in the ballet during the preparations for the ball, before Juliet has set eyes on Romeo. She is introduced here in a state of playful innocence, running in semiquavers with the violins and clapping her hands to staccato chords on woodwind. And yet, as the clarinet indicates, she is not lacking in sentiment and, on the subject of her forthcoming and unwelcome marriage to Paris, not unthoughtful either.

The next movement demonstrates that the feuding Montague and Capulet families have the beginning of a problem on their hands. To the tender three-part counterpoint of the Madrigal Romeo – who has made a risky incognito entry to the Capulet ball with his friends Mercutio and Benvolio – approaches Juliet and, as his mask falls from his face, a romantic melody to be heard later again in the next movement rises on violins. The old-world pomposity of Minuet accompanies the earlier arrival of the invited guests at the ball.

Romeo and Juliet, the ballet equivalent of the balcony scene, is set in a delicate nocturnal atmosphere created by harp and muted strings. Beginning hesitantly with Romeo’s theme on solo strings and Juliet’s nervous answer on flute, the dialogue develops in intensity on an arch of ecstatic melody which finally falls back into the nocturnal stillness.   

The brutally contrasting Death of Tybalt embraces three episodes from the end of the second act of the ballet – Mercutio’s ill-advised sword fight with Juliet’s brother    Tybalt, Romeo’s angered reprisal on Tybalt with its fifteen fatal blows, and the dramatic finale in which the Capulets mourn Tybalt and swear vengeance on the Montagues.

Friar Laurence introduces the unfortunate cleric who, in the vain hope of uniting the feuding Montague and Capulet families, agrees to Romeo’s request to marry him to Juliet. He is characterised here by a ponderous chorale on lower strings and wind which is offset by more supple melodic material associated with Romeo.

As presented in Prokofiev’s second suite, Romeo and Juliet before parting incorporates four numbers from the third act – Juliet’s Chamber, Farewell before Parting, Interlude and Juliet alone. Like the balcony scene it has a broad central climax, which is approached in this case by the dawning of day with tremolando strings and lyrical birdsong, a horn call offering a fragment of the main theme of the central section, and a solo viola (or viola d’amore) recalling a tender melody from the balcony scene. Before the end tuba and double bass share the misgivings of Juliet’s “ill-divining soul.”

Gerald Larner © 2018

The Montagues and the Capulets

Juliet the little Girl

Friar Laurence

Dance

Minuet

Masks

Romeo and Juliete before Parting

Dance of the Antilles Girls

Tybalt's Death from suite

Romeo at Juliet’s Grave

Prokofiev’s music for Romeo and Juliet has always had a life in the concert hall. Although it was eventually to be recognised as the greatest ballet score by any Russian composer since Tchaikovsky – and the most inspired of all ballets on Shakespearean themes – it was initially rejected by both of the leading Soviet theatres, the Kirov in 1935 and the Bolshoi in 1936. The composer’s reaction to the setback was to compile a Romeo and Juliet concert suite, which was first performed with much success in Moscow in November 1936. The ballet still not having reached the stage by the following year, Prokofiev put together a second orchestral suite of seven dances, this time for Leningrad.

The eventual worldwide success of the ballet – after its first performances in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1938 and at the Kirov in Leningrad in 1940 – has not rendered the orchestral suites redundant. Far from it: they are now more popular than ever both in the concert hall and on record. Even so, in common with a rarely performed third suite compiled by the composer in 1946, they have the disadvantage that the various extracts do not appear in the same order as the events they represent in the story. Although the present selection of nine movement from Suites Nos.1 and 2 does not present the episodes in exactly the same order as in the ballet, it does not seriously contradict the chronology of the scenario.

The Montagues and the Capulets begins with the fateful succession of chords which accompany the Prince’s warning to the two feuding families:

“If ever you disturb our streets again,

Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.”

The scene changes to the ball at the house of the Capulets, where the knights dance in aggressively heavy-footed rhythms and where Juliet dances with Paris to a graceful variant of the same Capulet theme, gliding with the flute on viola glissandi and turning in quietly expressive chromatic harmonies.

The Child Juliet comes from somewhat earlier in the ballet, during the preparations for the ball. Juliet has not set eyes on Romeo and, though not yet fourteen, is destined by her parents to marry Count Paris. She is introduced by a playful theme of runs and leaps in a movement which features also a charmingly innocent tune for clarinet and, as she expresses her reluctance to accept the hand of Paris, a slower middle section with a poignant flute melody.

Friar Laurence introduces the unfortunate cleric who, in the vain hope of uniting the feuding Montague and Capulet families, agrees to Romeo’s request to marry him to Juliet. He is characterised here by a ponderous chorale on lower strings and wind which is offset by more supple melodic material associated with Romeo. This lugubrious episode is effectively offset by the lively Dance which forms part of a street carnival in the second act.

The arrival of the guests at the Capulets’ ball takes place to the accompaniment of a Minuet, the old-world pomposity of which is relieved by an allusion on cornet to a more graceful ladies’ dance. In Masks Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio make their necessarily incognito entry, cautiously at first on quiet percussion and stealthy clarinet but with increasing self-confidence and in increasingly bold melodic profile.

Romeo and Juliet before parting comes from after the lovers’ secret marriage. They awaken in Juliet’s bedroom to the song of the lark and take their leave of each other amidst a frankly operatic orgy of melody. Juliet is still expected by her family to go through with her marriage to Paris, however: the charmingly ironic Dance of the Girls from Antilles (or Dance of the Girls with the Lilies as it is more comprehensibly called in the ballet) is part of the pre-nuptial celebrations. Feminine grace is displaced by a fiercely virile reminder of the violent events associated with the Death of Tybalt – Mercutio’s ill-advised sword fight with Juliet’s brother Tybalt, Romeo’s angered reprisal on Tybalt with its fifteen fatal blows, and the dramatic second-act finale in which the Capulets mourn Tybalt and swear vengeance on the Montagues.

In an effort to avoid marriage to Count Paris, Juliet takes a potion which allows her to feign death – and which, after a miscalculation by Friar Laurence, is so efficacious that it convinces Romeo too. In Romeo at Juliet’s Grave he enters the Capulet crypt after the departure of the family mourners, takes Juliet’s apparently dead body in his arms, guides her for the last time through their last love dance and kills himself.

Gerald Larner © 2008