Message on the theme of the ballet Romeo and Juliet. Ballet "Romeo and Juliet" by Sergei Prokofiev

The first major work - the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" - became a true masterpiece. It was difficult to start his stage life. It was written in 1935-1936. The libretto was developed by the composer together with director S. Radlov and choreographer L. Lavrovsky (L. Lavrovsky staged the first production of the ballet in 1940 at the S. M. Kirov Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theatre). But the gradual getting used to the unusual music of Prokofiev was nevertheless crowned with success. The ballet "Romeo and Juliet" was completed in 1936, but was conceived earlier. The fate of the ballet continued to develop difficult. At first there were difficulties with the completion of the ballet. Prokofiev, together with S. Radlov, while developing the script, was thinking about a happy ending, which caused a storm of indignation among Shakespeare scholars. The apparent disrespect for the great playwright was explained simply: "The reasons that pushed us to this barbarity were purely choreographic: living people can dance, dying people will not dance lying down." The decision to end the ballet, like Shakespeare's, tragically, was influenced most of all by the fact that in the music itself, in its final episodes, there was no pure joy. The problem was settled after conversations with the choreographers, when it turned out that "it is possible to resolve the ballet fatal end." However, the Bolshoi Theater violated the agreement, considering the music to be non-dance. For the second time, the Leningrad Choreographic School refused the contract. As a result, the first production of "Romeo and Juliet" took place in 1938 in Czechoslovakia, in the city of Brno. The famous choreographer L. Lavrovsky became the director of the ballet. The part of Juliet was danced by the famous G. Ulanova.

Although in the past there were attempts to present Shakespeare on the ballet stage (for example, in 1926 Diaghilev staged the ballet Romeo and Juliet with music by the English composer C. Lambert), but none of them is considered successful. It seemed that if the images of Shakespeare could be embodied in opera, as was done by Bellini, Gounod, Verdi, or in symphonic music, as in Tchaikovsky, then in ballet, because of its genre specificity, it was impossible. In this regard, Prokofiev's appeal to Shakespeare's plot was a bold step. However, the traditions of Russian and Soviet ballet prepared this step.

The appearance of the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" is an important turning point in the work of Sergei Prokofiev. The ballet "Romeo and Juliet" has become one of the most significant achievements in the search for a new choreographic performance. Prokofiev strives for the embodiment of living human emotions, the establishment of realism. Prokofiev's music vividly reveals the main conflict of Shakespeare's tragedy - the clash of bright love with the family feud of the older generation, which characterizes the savagery of the medieval way of life. The composer created a synthesis in the ballet - a fusion of drama and music, just as in his time Shakespeare combined poetry with dramatic action in Romeo and Juliet. Prokofiev's music conveys the subtlest psychological movements of the human soul, the richness of Shakespeare's thought, the passion and drama of his first of the most perfect tragedies. Prokofiev managed to recreate Shakespeare's characters in the ballet in their diversity and completeness, deep poetry and vitality. The love poetry of Romeo and Juliet, the humor and mischief of Mercutio, the innocence of the Nurse, the wisdom of Pater Lorenzo, the fury and cruelty of Tybalt, the festive and violent color of the Italian streets, the tenderness of the morning dawn and the drama of death scenes - all this is embodied by Prokofiev with skill and great expressive power.

The specificity of the ballet genre required the enlargement of the action, its concentration. Cutting off everything secondary or secondary in the tragedy, Prokofiev focused his attention on the central semantic moments: love and death; fatal enmity between the two families of the Veronese nobility - the Montagues and the Capulets, which led to the death of lovers. Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev is a richly developed choreographic drama with a complex motivation of psychological states, an abundance of clear musical portraits-characteristics. The libretto concisely and convincingly shows the basis of Shakespeare's tragedy. It retains the main sequence of scenes (only a few scenes are reduced - 5 acts of the tragedy are grouped into 3 large acts).

Romeo and Juliet is a deeply innovative ballet. Its novelty is also manifested in the principles of symphonic development. The symphonic dramaturgy of the ballet contains three different types.

The first is the conflicting opposition of the themes of good and evil. All heroes - carriers of goodness are shown in various and multifaceted ways. The composer presents evil more generally, bringing the themes of hostility closer to the themes of rock of the 19th century, to some themes of evil of the 20th century. Themes of evil appear in all acts except the epilogue. They invade the world of heroes and do not develop.

The second type of symphonic development is associated with the gradual transformation of images - Mercutio and Juliet, with the disclosure of the psychological states of the characters and the display of the internal growth of images.

The third type reveals the features of variation, variance, characteristic of Prokofiev's symphonism as a whole, it especially affects lyrical themes.

All three of these types are also subordinated in ballet to the principles of film montage, the special rhythm of shots, the techniques of close-ups, medium and long-range shots, the techniques of "influxes", sharp contrasting oppositions that give the scenes a special meaning.

Act I

Scene 1
Morning in Renaissance Verona. Romeo Montecchi meets the dawn. The city is gradually waking up; Romeo's two friends appear, Mercutio and Benvolio. The market square fills with people. A smoldering feud between the Montecchi and Capulet families erupts when Tybalt, a representative of the Capulet family, appears on the square. An innocent banter develops into a duel: Tybalt fights with Benvolio and Mercutio.
Signor and Signora Capulet appear, as well as Signora Montague. The duel subsides for a while, but very soon all the representatives of both families enter the fray. The Duke of Verona is trying to exhort the fighters, his guard is restoring order. The crowd disperses, leaving the bodies of two dead youths in the square.

Scene 2
Juliet, the daughter of Signor and Signora Capulet, affectionately plays a joke on the Nurse, who is dressing her up for the ball. Her mother enters and announces that Juliet is preparing to marry the young aristocrat Paris. Paris himself appears, accompanied by Juliet's father. The girl is not sure that she wants this marriage, but she politely greets Paris.

Scene 3
A lavish ball at the Capulet's house. The father introduces Juliet to the assembled guests. Hiding under masks, Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio sneak into the ball. Romeo sees Juliet and falls in love with her at first sight. Juliet dances with Paris, after the dance Romeo Juliet dances with Paris, after the dance Romeo reveals his feelings to her. Juliet immediately falls in love with him. Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, begins to suspect the intruder and unmasks him. Romeo is exposed, Tybalt becomes furious and demands a duel, but Signor Capulet stops his nephew. As the guests disperse, Tybalt warns Juliet to stay away from Romeo.

Scene 4
That night, Romeo comes to Juliet's balcony. And Juliet comes down to him. Despite the obvious danger that threatens both, they exchange love vows.

Act II

Scene 1
In the market square, Mercutio and Benvolio play a trick on Romeo, who has lost his head from love. Juliet's Nurse appears and gives Romeo a note from her mistress: Juliet agrees to secretly marry her lover. Romeo is beside himself with happiness.

Scene 2
Romeo and Juliet, following their plan, meet in the cell of the monk Lorenzo, who agreed to marry them, despite the risk. Lorenzo hopes that this marriage will put an end to the enmity between the two families. He performs the ceremony, now the young lovers are husband and wife.

Scene 3
In the market place, Mercutio and Benvolio meet Tybalt. Mercutio makes fun of Tybalt. Romeo appears. Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel, but Romeo refuses to accept the challenge. Enraged, Mercutio continues to taunt, and then crosses blades with Tybalt. Romeo tries to stop the fight, but his intervention results in Mercutio's death. Overwhelmed with grief and guilt, Romeo grabs his weapon and stabs Tybalt in a duel. Signor and Signora Capulet appear; Tybalt's death plunges them into indescribable grief. By order of the Duke, the guard carries away the bodies of Tybalt and Mercutio. The duke in anger condemns Romeo to exile, he flees from the square.

Act III

Scene 1
Juliet's bedroom. Dawn. Romeo stayed in Verona for his wedding night with Juliet. However, now, despite the sadness that gnaws at him, Romeo must leave: it is impossible to be found in the city. After Romeo leaves, Juliet's parents and Paris appear in the bedroom. The wedding of Juliet and Paris is scheduled for the next day. Juliet objects, but her father sternly orders her to be quiet. In desperation, Juliet rushes to the monk Lorenzo for help.

Scene 2
Cell Lorenzo. The monk gives Juliet a vial of a potion that puts her into a deep, death-like sleep. Lorenzo promises to send Romeo a letter in which he will explain what happened, then the young man will be able to take Juliet from the family crypt when she wakes up.

Scene 3
Juliet returns to the bedroom. She feigned obedience to her parental will and agrees to become the wife of Paris. However, left alone, she takes a sleeping potion and collapses onto the bed, dead. In the morning, Signor and Signora Capulet, Paris, the Nurse and the maids, having come to wake Juliet, find her lifeless. The nurse tries to stir up the girl, but Juliet does not answer. Everyone is sure she is dead.

Scene 4
The Capulet family vault. Juliet is still shackled by a death-like sleep. Romeo appears. He did not receive a letter from Lorenzo, so he is sure that Juliet really died. In desperation, he drinks poison, seeking to unite with his beloved in death. But before he closes his eyes forever, he notices that Juliet has woken up. Romeo understands how cruelly he was deceived and how irreparably happened. He dies, Juliet is stabbed to death with his dagger. The Montecchi family, Signor Capulet, the Duke, the monk Lorenzo and other townspeople witness a terrible scene. Realizing that the enmity of their families became the cause of the tragedy, the Capulets and the Montagues reconcile in grief.

Romeo and Juliet in the language of Terpsichore

"Soul-filled flight."
"Eugene Onegin" A. S. Pushkin.

The immortal story of Romeo and Juliet, undoubtedly, has long taken its unshakable place on the Olympus of world culture. Over the centuries, the charm of the moving love story and its popularity have created the prerequisites for numerous adaptations in every possible artistic form. Could not stay away and ballet.

As early as 1785, E. Luzzi's five-act ballet "Juliet and Romeo" was performed in Venice.
The outstanding master of choreography, August Bournonville, in his book My Theatrical Life, describes a curious production of Romeo and Juliet in 1811 in Copenhagen by choreographer Vincenzo Galeotte to the music of Schall. In this ballet, such an essential Shakespearean motive as the family feud between the Montagues and the Capulets was omitted: Juliet was simply forcibly married to the hated count, and the dance of the heroine with the unloved groom at the end of Act IV was a great success with the public. The most amusing thing was that the roles of the young Veronese lovers were entrusted - according to the existing theatrical hierarchy - to artists of a very respectable age; the performer Romeo was fifty years old, Juliet was about forty, Paris was forty-three, and the famous choreographer Vincenzo Galeotti, who had passed seventy-eight, played the monk Lorenzo himself!

VERSION BY LEONID LAVROVSKII. USSR.

In 1934, the Moscow Bolshoi Theater approached Sergei Prokofiev with a proposal to write music for the ballet Romeo and Juliet. It was a time when the famous composer, frightened by the emergence of dictatorial regimes in the heart of Europe, returned to the Soviet Union and wanted one thing - to work quietly for the good of his homeland, which he left in 1918. Having concluded an agreement with Prokofiev, the leadership of the Bolshoi Theater counted on the appearance of a ballet in the traditional style on an eternal theme. Fortunately, in the history of Russian music there were already excellent examples of this, created by the unforgettable Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The text of the tragic story of the lovers of Verona was well known in a country where Shakespeare's theater enjoyed popular love.
In 1935, the score was completed and preparations began for the production. Immediately, the ballet dancers declared the music "non-dance", and the orchestra - "contrary to the methods of playing musical instruments." In October of the same year, Prokofiev performed a suite from the ballet, arranged for piano, during a solo concert in Moscow. A year later, he combined the most expressive passages from the ballet into two suites (a third appeared in 1946). Thus, the music for the never staged ballet began to be performed in symphony programs by the largest European and American orchestras. After the Bolshoi Theater finally broke the contract with the composer, the Leningrad Kirov (now the Mariinsky) Theater became interested in the ballet and staged it on its stage in January 1940.

Largely thanks to the choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky and the embodiment of the images of Juliet and Romeo by Galina Ulanova and Konstantin Sergeyev, the premiere of the production became an unprecedented event in the cultural life of the second capital. The ballet came out majestic and tragic, but at the same time romantic to awe. The director and the actors managed to achieve the main thing - the audience felt a deep inner connection between Romeo and Juliet and Tchaikovsky's ballets. On the wave of success, Prokofiev later created two more beautiful, although not so successful, ballets - Cinderella and The Stone Flower. The Minister of Culture expressed the wish that love in ballet would triumph over the criminal villainy of the authorities. The composer was of the same opinion, although for different reasons related to the requirements of the stage production.

However, the influential Shakespeare Commission of Moscow opposed such a decision, defending the rights of the author, and powerful adherents of socialist optimism were forced to surrender. In an atmosphere deliberately folk and realistic, and, consequently, opposed to the avant-garde and modernist trends of modern ballet for that time, a new stage began in the art of classical dance. However, before this flourishing could bear fruit, the Second World War broke out, suspending all cultural activity both in the USSR and in Western Europe for five long years.

The first and main feature of the new ballet was its duration - it consisted of thirteen scenes, not counting the prologue and epilogue. The plot was as close as possible to the Shakespearean text, and the general idea has a reconciling meaning. Lavrovsky decided to minimize the outdated facial expressions of the 19th century, widespread in Russian theaters, preferring dance as an element, dance that is born in the direct manifestation of feelings. The choreographer was able to present in basic terms the horror of death and the pain of unfulfilled love, already clearly expressed by the composer; he created live mass scenes with dizzying fights (he even took advice from a weapons specialist to stage them). In 1940, Galina Ulanova turned thirty years old; to someone she might seem too old for the Juliet party. In fact, it is not known whether the image of a young lover would have been born without this performance. The ballet became an event of such significance that it opened a new stage in the ballet art of the Soviet Union - and this despite the severe censorship by the ruling authorities in the difficult years of Stalinism, which tied Prokofiev's hands. After the end of the war, the ballet began its triumphal procession around the world. It entered the repertoire of all ballet theaters in the USSR and European countries, where new, interesting choreographic solutions were found for it.

The ballet Romeo and Juliet was first staged on January 11, 1940 at the Kirov (now the Mariinsky) Theater in Leningrad. This is the official version. However, the true "premier" - albeit in an abbreviated form - took place on December 30, 1938 in the Czechoslovak city of Brno. The orchestra was led by the Italian conductor Guido Arnoldi, the choreographer was the young Ivo Vania-Psota, he also performed the part of Romeo together with Zora Semberova - Juliet. All documentary evidence of this production was lost as a result of the arrival of the Nazis in Czechoslovakia in 1939. For the same reason, the choreographer was forced to flee to America, where he unsuccessfully tried to put the ballet on stage again. How could it happen that such a significant production was performed almost illegally outside of Russia?
In 1938, Prokofiev toured the West for the last time as a pianist. In Paris, he performed both suites from the ballet. The conductor of the Brno Opera House was present in the hall, who was extremely interested in new music.

The composer gave him a copy of his suites, and the ballet was staged on their basis. In the meantime, the production of the ballet was finally approved at the Kirov (now the Mariinsky) Theater. Everyone preferred to hush up the fact that the production took place in Brno; Prokofiev - so as not to set the USSR Ministry of Culture against themselves, the Kirov Theater - so as not to lose the right to the first production, the Americans - because they wanted to live in peace and respect copyrights, the Europeans - because they were much more worried about the serious political problems that had to be solved. Only a few years after the Leningrad premiere, newspaper articles and photographs came to light from the Czech archives; documentary evidence of that production.

In the 50s of the twentieth century, the ballet "Romeo and Juliet", like a hurricane epidemic, conquered the whole world. Numerous interpretations and new versions of the ballet appeared, sometimes causing strong protests from critics. No one in the Soviet Union raised a hand to the original production of Lavrovsky, except that Oleg Vladimirov, on the stage of the Maly Opera Theater of Leningrad in the 70s, nevertheless brought the story of young lovers to a happy ending. However, he soon returned to the traditional production. The Stockholm version of 1944 can also be noted - in it, reduced to fifty minutes, the emphasis is on the struggle of two warring factions. It is impossible to ignore the versions of Kenneth Mac Milan and the London Royal Ballet with the unforgettable Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fontaine; John Neumeier and the Royal Danish Ballet, in the interpretation of which love is glorified and extolled as a force that can resist any coercion. One could enumerate many other interpretations, from the London production of Frederic Ashton, the ballet at the singing fountains in Prague to the Moscow performance of Yuri Grigorovich, but we will focus on the interpretation of the brilliant Rudolf Nureyev.

Thanks to Nuriev, Prokofiev's ballet received a new impetus. The importance of Romeo's part increased, and it became equal in importance to the part of Juliet. There was a breakthrough in the history of the genre - before that, the male role was, of course, subordinated to the primacy of the prima ballerina. In this sense, Nureyev is indeed the direct heir to such mythical characters as Vaslav Nijinsky (who reigned on the stage of the Russian Ballets from 1909 to 1918), or Serge Lefar (who shone in the grandiose productions of the Paris Opera in the 30s).

VERSION OF RUDOLF NURIEV. USSR, AUSTRIA.

The production of Rudolf Nureyev is much darker and more tragic than the light and romantic production of Leonid Lavrovsky, but this makes it no less beautiful. From the very first minutes, it becomes clear that the Damocles sword of fate has already been raised above the heroes and its fall is inevitable. In his version, Nuriev allowed himself some discrepancy with Shakespeare. He introduced Rosalina into the ballet, which the classic has only as a disembodied phantom. He showed warm family feelings between Tybalt and Juliet; the scene when the young Capulet finds herself between two fires, having learned about the death of her brother and that her husband is his killer, literally gives goosebumps, it seems that even then some part of the girl’s soul dies. The death of Father Lorenzo is a little jarring, but in this ballet it is in complete harmony with the general impression. An interesting fact: artists never fully rehearse the final scene, they dance here and now as their heart tells them.

VERSION N. RYZHENKO AND V. SMIRNOV-GOLOVANOV. USSR.

In 1968 a mini ballet was staged. Choreography by N. Ryzhenko and V. Smirnov - Golovanov to the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky. In this version, there are no all the characters except the main ones. The role of tragic events and circumstances that stand in the way of lovers is played by the corps de ballet. But this will not prevent a person familiar with the plot from understanding the meaning, idea and appreciating the versatility and imagery of the production.

The film - the ballet "Shakespearean", which in addition to "Romeo and Juliet" includes miniatures on the theme of "Othello" and "Hamlet", is still different from the miniature mentioned above, despite the fact that it uses the same music and the directors are those or choreographers. The character of Father Lorenzo is added here, and the rest of the characters, although in the corps de ballet, are still present, and the choreography is also slightly changed. An excellent frame for a picture is an ancient castle on the seashore, in the walls and surroundings of which the action takes place. ... And now the overall impression is completely different ....

Two at the same time so similar and so different creations, each of which deserves special attention.

RADOU POKLITARU VERSION. MOLDOVA.

The production of the Moldavian choreographer Radu Poklitaru is interesting in that Tybalt’s hatred during the duel is directed not so much at Romeo as at Mercutio, since he, dressed as a woman at the ball, to protect his friend, flirted with the “cat king” and even kissed him, thereby putting him on general laughter. In this version, the "balcony" scene is replaced by a scene similar to a scene from a miniature to Tchaikovsky's music, describing the situation as a whole. The character of Lorenzo's father is interesting. He is blind and thus, as it were, personifies the idea voiced first by Victor Hugo in the novel "The Man Who Laughs", and then by Antoine de Saint-Exupery in "The Little Prince" that "only the heart is vigilant", because despite blindness, he alone sees what the sighted do not notice. The scene of Romeo's death is creepy and at the same time romantic, he puts the dagger in the hand of his beloved, then reaches out to kiss her and, as it were, impales himself on the blade.

MAURICE BEJAR VERSION. FRANCE, SWITZERLAND.

Ballet Dramatic symphony "Romeo and Juliet" to music by Hector Berlioz staged by Maurice Béjart. The performance was filmed in the Boboli Gardens (Florence, Italy). It begins with a Prologue set in modern times. In the rehearsal room, where a group of dancers has gathered, a quarrel breaks out, turning into a general brawl. Then Bejart himself, the choreographer, the author, jumps out of the auditorium onto the stage. A short wave of the hands, a snap of the fingers - and everyone disperses to their places. Simultaneously with the choreographer, two more dancers come out from the back of the stage, who were not there before, and they did not participate in the previous fight. They are wearing the same suits as everyone else, but in white. They are still just dancers, but the choreographer suddenly sees his heroes in them - Romeo and Juliet. And then he becomes the Author, and the viewer feels how the idea is mysteriously born, which the Author, like the Creator-Demiurge, passes on to the dancers - through them the idea must come true. The author here is a mighty ruler of his scene-universe, who, however, is powerless to change the fate of the characters he called to life. This is beyond the power of the Author. He can only convey his idea to the actors, only dedicate them to a part of what should happen, taking on the burden of responsibility for his decision .... In this performance, some heroes of the play are missing, and the production itself conveys the general essence of the tragedy rather than tells Shakespeare's story.

VERSION MAURO BIGONZETTI.

The innovative design of a charismatic multimedia artist, Prokofiev's classical music and Mauro Bigonzetti's vibrant, eclectic choreography, focusing not on a tragic love story but on its energy, create a show that merges media art and the art of ballet. Passion, conflict, fate, love, death - these are the five elements that make up the choreography of this controversial ballet, based on sensuality and having a strong emotional impact on the viewer.

VERSION MATS ECA. SWEDEN.

Obeying every note of Tchaikovsky, the Swedish theater-goer Mats Ek composed his own ballet. There is no place in his performance for the seething Verona Prokofiev with her crowded holidays, wild merriment of the crowd, carnivals, religious processions, courtly gavottes and picturesque battles. The scenographer built today's metropolis, a city of avenues and dead ends, garage backyards and luxurious lofts. This is a city of loners who huddle together in packs just to survive. Here they kill without pistols and knives - quickly, on the sly, everyday and so often that death no longer causes either horror or anger.

Tybalt will crush Mercutio's head on the corner of the portal wall, and then urinate on his corpse; a brutalized Romeo will jump on the back of Tybalt, who stumbled in a fight, until he breaks his spine. The law of power reigns here, and it looks frighteningly unshakable. One of the most shocking scenes is the monologue of the Ruler after the first massacre, but his pitiful efforts are meaningless, the official authorities do not care about the old man, he has lost touch with time and people, Perhaps for the first time the tragedy of Verona lovers has ceased to be a ballet for two; Mats Ek gave each character an excellent dance biography - detailed, psychologically sophisticated, with past, present and future.

In the scene of mourning for Tybalt, when his aunt escapes from the hands of a hated husband, one can read the whole life of Lady Capulet, married against her will and tormented by a criminal passion for her nephew. Behind the inquisitive virtuosity of the timid little Benvolio, dragging the dog behind the marginal Mercutio, his hopeless future shows through: if the cowardly fellow is not cut down in the alley, then this stubborn native from the bottom will still receive an education and a clerk's position in some office. Mercutio himself - a luxurious shaven-headed fellow in tattoos and leather pants, tormented by an unrequited and timid love for Romeo, lives only in the present. Periods of depression give way to outbursts of furious energy, when this giant soars in twisted legs or plays the fool at a ball, beating off classical entrecha in a tutu.

Mats Ek gave the kindest Nurse a rich past: one has only to watch how this elderly lady juggles four guys, wringing her hands in Spanish, swaying her hips and waving her skirt. In the title of the ballet, Mats Ek put the name of Juliet first, because it is she who is the leader in a love couple: she makes fateful decisions, she is the only one in the city who challenges the inexorable clan, she is the first to meet death - at the hands of her father: in the play there is not even Lorenzo's father , no wedding, no sleeping pills - all this is insignificant for Ek.

Swedish reviewers unanimously connected the death of his Juliet with the sensational story of a young Muslim woman in Stockholm: the girl, not wanting to marry the chosen one of the family, ran away from home and was killed by her father. Maybe so: Mats Ek is convinced that the story of Romeo and Juliet is the DNA of all mankind. But no matter what real events inspired the production, what is more important is what takes the performance beyond the scope of relevance. No matter how trite, Ek's is love. The girl Juliet and the boy Romeo (he looks like a “millionaire from the slums”, only some Brazilian ones) did not have time to understand how to deal with irresistible longing. Ek’s death is static: in a dance performance through and through, the death of teenagers is staged purely by the director and therefore beats backhand - Juliet and Romeo slowly disappear under the ground, and only their legs, twisted like withered trees, stick out above the stage as a monument to murdered love.

VERSION OF GOYO MONTERO.

In the version of the Spanish choreographer Goyo Montero, all the characters are just pawns acting at the will of fate, in a game twisted by fate. There is neither Lord Capulet nor the prince here, and Lady Capulet embodies two hypostases: either she is a caring mother, or a domineering, cruel, uncompromising lady. The theme of struggle is clearly expressed in the ballet: the emotional experiences of the characters are shown as an attempt to fight fate, and the final adagio of the lovers is shown as Juliet's struggle with herself. The main character observes the plan of getting rid of the hated marriage, as if from the side, in the crypt, instead of stabbing herself, she opens her veins. Breaking all stereotypes, the dancer performing the role of fate skillfully recites and even sings excerpts from Shakespeare.

VERSION BY JOELLE BOUVIER. FRANCE.

The Ballet of the Grand Theater of Geneva presented a version of Sergei Prokofiev's ballet. The author of the production is the French choreographer Joel Bouvier, who made her debut with this performance at the Grand Theater in Geneva. In her vision, the story of Romeo and Juliet, "the story of love strangled with hatred," can serve as an illustration for any war waged today. This is an abstract production, there are no brightly outlined events of the play; rather, the internal state of the characters is shown more, and the action is only slightly outlined.

At one time, the great composer Hector Berlioz, experiencing a feverish passion for Shakespeare, which later led him to the daring plan of “Shakespeareanization of music,” wrote excitedly from Rome: “Shakespeare's Romeo! God, what a story! Everything in it seems to be intended for music! .. A dazzling ball in the Capulet house, these frenzied fights in the streets of Verona ... this inexpressible night scene at Juliet's balcony, where two lovers whisper about love, tender, sweet and pure, like the rays of night stars... the spicy buffoonery of the careless Mercutio... then a terrible catastrophe... sighs of voluptuousness, turning into the wheezing of death, and, finally, the solemn oath of two warring families - over the corpses of their unfortunate children - to end the enmity that caused so much blood to be shed and tears...

VERSION BY THIERRY MALANDIN. FRANCE.

Thierry Malandin used the music of Berlioz in his production. In this interpretation, the parties of Verona lovers are performed by several pairs of artists at the same time, and the production itself is a set of scenes from the famous tragedy. The world of Romeo and Juliet here consists of iron boxes that become either barricades, or a balcony, or a bed of love ... until, finally, they turn into a coffin that contains great love, not understood by this cruel world.

SASHA WALTZ VERSION. GERMANY.

The German choreographer Sascha Waltz did not want to convey the literary version, but like Berlioz, who tells the whole story in the prologue, he stops at moments dedicated to strong emotions. Sublime, spiritualized, slightly out of this world, the heroes look equally harmonious both in lyric-tragic scenes and in the perky scene “at the ball”. The transforming scenery turns into a balcony, then into a wall, then becomes a second stage, thus allowing two scenes to be shown simultaneously. This story is not a struggle with specific circumstances, this is a story of confrontation with the inevitable fate of fate.

VERSION OF JEAN-CHRISTOPHE MAILLOT. FRANCE.

According to Jean-Christophe Maillot's French version, set to music by Prokofiev, two teenage lovers are doomed not because their families are at enmity, but because their blinding love leads to self-destruction. The priest and the duke (there is one person in this ballet), a man who is acutely experiencing the tragedy of the enmity of two irreconcilable clans, but lowered his hands, resigned himself to what is happening and became an outside observer of the daily bloody slaughter. Rosaline flirting discreetly with Romeo, although much more willing to respond to Tybalt's hot displays of affection, whose ambitions of a womanizer become another impetus for conflict with Mercutio. The scene of Tybalt's murder is done in slow motion, which resonates with the fast, violent music, thereby visually demonstrating the state of passion under which Romeo commits a terrible atrocity. The widow, Lady Capulet's vamp, is obviously not indifferent to the young earl, who would rather become a stepfather than the groom of the young heiress of the family. As well as forbidden love, youthful maximalism and much more, Juliet tightens the noose around her neck and falls lifeless on the body of her lover.

ANGELIN PRELJOCAGE'S VERSION. FRANCE.

The play by Angelin Preljocaj is permeated with the leitmotifs of Orwell's novel 1984. But unlike Orwell, who described a totalitarian society under the supervision of a "big brother", the choreographer managed to convey the atmosphere of a prison in a caste society. In a society that is undergoing a dramatic breakdown of declassification. Juliet is the daughter of the head of the Gulag prison, from the elite Capulet clan, fenced off from the outside world with barbed wire and guarded by shepherd dogs, with whom guards with searchlights walk along the perimeter of the zone. And Romeo is an upstart from the marginal proletarian lower classes, the unbridled world of the mob in the backyards of the metropolis, where stabbing is the norm. Romeo is aggressively brutal, and he is not at all a romantic hero-lover. Instead of the absent Tybalt, Romeo, sneaking on a date with Juliet, kills the guard. He sweeps away the first cordon, jumps over the hierarchical level, penetrating into the elite world, as if into an alluring "Kafkaesque" castle. With Preljocaj, it is deliberately unclear whether the whole world is a prison, or whether the powerful of this world are rigidly defending themselves from the declassed world, conserving themselves in the ghetto and using violence against any encroachment from outside. Here all the concepts are "inside out". There is a siege of all against all.

It doesn’t matter what language great stories are told: whether they are played on the stage or in the cinema, whether they are conveyed by singing or sound like beautiful music, frozen on canvas, in sculpture, in the camera lens, whether they are built by the lines of human souls and bodies - the main thing is that they lived, live and will live, making us become better.

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Among the best Soviet ballets decorating the stage of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, one of the first places is rightfully occupied by the ballet Romeo and Juliet by S. Prokofiev. He invariably captivates the audience with his high poetry and genuine humanism, a bright, truthful embodiment of human feelings and thoughts. The premiere of the ballet took place in 1940 at the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov. In 1946, this performance was transferred with some changes to the stage of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR.

The ballet Romeo and Juliet (libretto by S. Prokofiev and L. Lavrovsky after Shakespeare) staged by the choreographer L. Lavrovsky is one of the most significant milestones on the path of the Soviet ballet theater to realism. The requirements of high ideological and realism, common to all Soviet art, determined the approach of Prokofiev and Lavrovsky to the embodiment of the deep ideological concept of Shakespeare's immortal tragedy. In a live reproduction of Shakespeare's characters, the authors of the ballet sought to reveal the main idea of ​​the tragedy: a clash between the dark forces nurtured by the Middle Ages, on the one hand, and the feelings, ideas and moods of people of the early Renaissance, on the other. Romeo and Juliet live in the harsh world of cruel medieval customs. An intergenerational feud divides their old patrician families. Under these conditions, the love of Romeo and Juliet must have been tragic for them. Challenging the prejudices of the obsolete Middle Ages, Romeo and Juliet died in the struggle for the freedom of the individual, the freedom of feeling. With their death, they seemed to affirm the triumph of the humanistic ideas of a new era, the dawn of which flared up brighter and brighter. Light lyrics, mournful pathos, amusing buffoonery - everything that Shakespearean tragedy lives on - finds a bright and characteristic embodiment in the music and choreography of the ballet.

Inspired love scenes of Romeo and Juliet come to life before the viewer, pictures of everyday life and cruel, inert customs of the Verona aristocracy, episodes of the seething street life of the Italian city, where laid-back fun is replaced by bloody fights and funeral processions. The forces of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are figuratively and artistically convincingly contrasted in the music of the ballet. Sharp ominous sounds evoke an idea of ​​the gloomy medieval customs that mercilessly suppressed the human personality, its desire for freedom. On such music, episodes of the clash of warring families - the Montagues and the Capulets - are built, typical representatives of the medieval world are characterized by it. - the arrogant and vicious Tybalt, the soulless and cruel Signor and Signora Capulet. The heralds of the Renaissance are portrayed differently. The rich emotional world of Romeo and Juliet is revealed in light, excited, melodic music.

The image of Juliet is most fully and attractively captured in Prokofiev's music. The carefree and playful girl, as we see her at the beginning of the ballet, shows genuine selflessness and heroism when, in the struggle for fidelity to her feelings, she rebels against ridiculous prejudices. The musical development of the image goes from the expression of childlike fun to the most tender lyrics and deep drama. The character of Romeo is outlined more concisely in music. Two contrasting themes - lyric-contemplative and passionately passionate - depict the transformation of Romeo under the influence of love for Juliet from a melancholy dreamer into a courageous, purposeful person. Brightly outlined by the composer and other representatives of the new era. The witty music, full of cheerful, somewhat rude humor, and sometimes sharp sarcasm, reveals the character of Mercutio, a cheerful merry fellow and joker.

The musical portrait of Father Lorenzo, a philosopher and humanist, is very expressive. Wise simplicity and calm balance are combined in it with great warmth and humanity. The music that characterizes Lorenzo plays a significant role in creating the general atmosphere that permeates the ballet - an atmosphere of humanity and emotional completeness. Truly embodying the content of Shakespeare's tragedy, Prokofiev interprets it in a peculiar way, which is explained by the peculiarities of his creative individuality.

Prokofiev S. Ballet "Romeo and Juliet"

BALLET "ROMEO AND JULIET"

The ballet "Romeo and Juliet" was written by Prokofiev in 1935-1936. The libretto was developed by the composer together with director S. Radlov and choreographer L. Lavrovsky (L. Lavrovsky staged the first production of the ballet in 1940 at the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov).

Prokofiev's work continued the classical traditions of Russian ballet. This was expressed in the great ethical significance of the chosen theme, in the reflection of deep human feelings, in the developed symphonic dramaturgy of the ballet performance. And at the same time, the ballet score of Romeo and Juliet was so unusual that it took time to get used to it. There was even an ironic saying: "There is no sadder story in the world than Prokofiev's music in ballet." Only gradually all this was replaced by an enthusiastic attitude of the artists, and then of the public, to the music 35 .

35 About how unusual the music of Prokofiev’s ballet was for the dancers, G. Ulanova tells in her memoirs about the composer: seemed incomprehensible and uncomfortable. But the more we listened to it, the more we worked, searched, experimented, the brighter the images that were born from music rose before us. And gradually her understanding came, gradually she became comfortable for dancing, choreographically and psychologically clear ”(Ulanova G. Author of favorite ballets. Cit. ed., p. 434).

First of all, the plot was unusual. Turning to Shakespeare was a bold step in Soviet choreography, since, according to the generally accepted opinion, it was believed that the embodiment of such complex philosophical and dramatic themes was impossible using ballet 36 . The Shakespearean theme requires the composer to give a multifaceted realistic characterization of the characters and their life environment, focusing on dramatic and psychological scenes.

Prokofiev's music and Lavrovsky's performance are imbued with Shakespeare's spirit. In an effort to bring the ballet performance as close as possible to its literary source, the authors of the libretto retained the main events and sequence of Shakespeare's tragedy. Only a few scenes have been cut. The five acts of the tragedy are grouped into three major acts. Based on the peculiarities of the dramaturgy of the ballet, the authors introduced, however, some new scenes that make it possible to convey the atmosphere of the action and the action itself in dance, in motion - a folk festival in Act II, a funeral procession with the body of Tybalt, and others.

Prokofiev's music vividly reveals the main conflict of the tragedy - the clash of the bright love of young heroes with the family enmity of the older generation, which characterizes the savagery of the medieval way of life (the former ballet performances of Romeo and Juliet and Gounod's famous opera are limited mainly to depicting the love line of the tragedy). Prokofiev was also able to embody in music Shakespeare's contrasts between the tragic and the comic, the sublime and the clownish.

Prokofiev, who had in front of him such lofty examples of the symphonic embodiment of Romeo and Juliet as the Berlioz symphony and Tchaikovsky's overture-fantasy, created a completely original work. The lyrics of the ballet are restrained and pure, sometimes refined. The composer avoids lengthy lyrical outpourings, but where necessary, passion and tension are inherent in his lyrics. The figurative accuracy characteristic of Prokofiev, the visibility of music, as well as the laconism of characteristics, were revealed with particular force.

The closest connection between music and action distinguishes the musical dramaturgy of the work, which is brightly theatrical in its essence. It is based on scenes designed for the organic combination of pantomime and dance: these are solo portrait scenes"

36 In the era of Tchaikovsky and Glazunov, fairy-tale romantic plots were the most common in ballet. Tchaikovsky considered them the most suitable for ballet, using the poetic plots of "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty", "The Nutcracker" to express generalized ideas, deep human feelings.

Soviet ballet, along with fairy-tale romantic plots, is characterized by an appeal to realistic themes - historical-revolutionary, modern, taken from world literature. These are the ballets: The Red Flower and The Bronze Horseman by Gliere, The Flames of Paris and The Fountain of Bakhchisarai by Asafiev, Gayane and Spartacus by Khachaturian, Anna Karenina and The Seagull by Shchedrin.

(“Juliet the Girl”, “Mercutio”, “Pater Lorenzo”), and dialogue scenes (“At the Balcony”. Roma and Juliet are separated”), and dramatic crowd scenes (“Quarrel”, “Fight”).

There is absolutely no divertissement here, that is, inserted, purely dance "concert" numbers (cycles of variations and characteristic dances). The dances are either characteristic (“Dance of the Knights”, otherwise called “Montagues and Capuleti”), or recreate the atmosphere of the action (aristocratically graceful ballroom dances, cheerful folk dances), captivating with their colorfulness and dynamics.

One of the most important dramatic means in "Romeo and Juliet" are leitmotifs. In his ballets and operas, Prokofiev developed a peculiar technique of leitmotif development. Usually, the musical portraits of his characters are interwoven from several themes that characterize different sides of the image. They can be repeated, vary in the future, but the appearance of new qualities of the image most often causes the emergence of a new theme, which, at the same time, is closely connected with the previous themes intonation.

The clearest example is the three themes of love, which mark three stages in the development of feelings: its inception (see example 177), flowering (example 178), and its tragic intensity (example 186).

Prokofiev contrasts the multifaceted and intricately developed images of Romeo and Juliet with one, almost unchanged throughout the ballet, the image of a gloomy, stupid enmity, the evil that caused the death of the heroes.

The method of sharp contrasting comparisons is one of the strongest dramatic devices of this ballet. For example, the wedding scene at Father Lorenzo is framed by scenes of festive folk fun (the usual picture of the life of the city sets off the exclusivity and tragedy of the fate of the heroes); in the last act, the images of Juliet's most intense spiritual struggle are answered by the bright, transparent sounds of the "Morning Serenade".

The composer builds the ballet on the alternation of relatively small and very clearly designed musical numbers. In this ultimate completeness, "facetedness" of forms - the laconicism of the pro-Kofiev style. But thematic connections, common dynamic lines, often uniting several numbers, oppose the seeming mosaic of the composition and create the construction of a great symphonic breath. And the continuous development of leitmotif characteristics throughout the entire ballet imparts integrity to the whole work, dramaturgically unites it.

By what means does Prokofiev create a sense of time and place of action? As already mentioned in connection with the cantata "Alexander Nevsky", it is not typical for him to turn to genuine samples of music that has gone into the past. He prefers the transmission of a modern idea of ​​antiquity to this. The minuet and gavotte, dances of the 18th century of French origin, do not correspond to the Italian music of the 15th century, but they are well known to listeners as old European dances and evoke broad historical and specific figurative associations. The minuet and gavotte 37 characterize a certain stiffness and conditional gradation in the scene of the ball at the Capuleti. At the same time, a slight irony of a modern composer is felt in them, recreating the images of the “ceremonial” era.

The music of the folk festival is original, depicting the boiling, sun-saturated and vivid feelings atmosphere of Renaissance Italy. Prokofiev uses here the rhythmic features of the Italian folk dance tarantella (see "Folk Dance" Act II)..

The introduction to the score of the mandolin (see "Dance with Mandolins", "Morning Serenade"), an instrument common in Italian life, is colorful. But it is more interesting that in many other episodes, mostly genre ones, the composer brings the texture and timbre coloring closer to the specific, unpretentious “plucked” sound of this instrument (see “The Street Wakes Up”, “Masks”, “Preparing for the Ball”, “Mercutio ").

I act. The ballet opens with a short "Introduction". It begins with the theme of love, concise as an epigraph, light and mournful at the same time:

The first scene depicts Romeo wandering through the city in the wee hours 38 . A thoughtful melody characterizes a young man dreaming of love:

87 The music of the gavotte was taken by Prokofiev from his Classical Symphony.

88 Shakespeare has no such scene. But this is told by Benvolio, a friend of Romeo. Turning the story into action, the authors of the libretto proceed from the peculiarities of the dramaturgy of the ballet.

This is one of Romeo's two main themes (the other was given in the "Introduction").

Pictures quickly alternate one after another, depicting morning, gradually reviving the streets of the city, a cheerful hustle, a quarrel between the servants of Montague and Capuleti, and finally - a battle and a formidable order from the duke to disperse.

A significant part of the 1st picture is imbued with a mood of carelessness, fun. It is, as if in focus, collected in a small sketch “The Street Wakes Up”, based on a dance warehouse melody, with an even “plucked” accompaniment, with the most unpretentious, it would seem, harmonization.

A few sparing touches: double seconds, rare syncopations, unexpected tonal juxtapositions give the music a special poignancy and mischief. The orchestration is witty, the bassoon alternately dialogues with violin, oboe, flute and clarinet:

The intonations and rhythms characteristic of this melody or close to it unite several numbers of the picture. They are in "Morning Dance", in the quarrel scene.

Striving for vivid theatricality, the composer uses visual musical means. Thus, the angry order of the duke caused a menacing slow "tread" on sharply dissonant sounds and sharp dynamic contrasts. On the continuous movement, imitating the knocking and rattling of weapons, a picture of the battle is built. But here the theme of generalizing expressive meaning also passes - the theme of enmity. “Clumsiness”, straightforwardness of melodic movement, low rhythmic mobility, harmonic stiffness and loud, “inflexible” sound of copper - all means are aimed at creating an image of a primitive and heavily gloomy:

graceful, gentle

Different aspects of the image appear sharply and unexpectedly, replacing one another (as is typical for a girl, a teenager). The lightness, liveliness of the first theme is expressed in a simple scale-like "running" melody, which, as it were, breaks up against different groups and instruments of the orchestra. Colorful harmonic "throws" of chords - major triads (on the VI reduced, III and I steps) emphasize its rhythmic sharpness and mobility. The grace of the second theme is conveyed by Prokofiev's favorite dance rhythm (gavotte), the plastic melody of the clarinet.

Subtle, pure lyricism is the most significant "facet" of the image of Juliet. Therefore, the appearance of the third theme of the musical portrait of Juliet is distinguished from the general context by a change in tempo, a sharp change in texture, so transparent, in which only light echoes set off the expressiveness of the melody, a change in timbre (flute solo).

All three of Juliet's themes pass in the future, and then new themes join them.

The plot of the tragedy is the scene of the ball at the Capuleti. This is where the feeling of love between Romeo and Juliet was born. Here, Tybalt, a representative of the Capuleti family, decides to take revenge on Romeo, who dared to cross the threshold of their house. These events take place against the bright, festive background of the ball.

Each of the dances has its own dramatic function. To the sounds of the minuet, creating a mood of official solemnity, the guests gather:

"Dance of the Knights"- this is a group portrait, a generalized characteristic of the "fathers". The jumping punctuated rhythm, combined with the measured heavy tread of the bass, creates an image of militancy and stupidity, combined with a kind of grandeur. The figurative expressiveness of the “Dance of the Knights” intensifies when the theme of enmity, already familiar to the listener, enters the bass. The very theme of the "Dance of the Knights" is used in the future as a characteristic of the Capuleti family:

As a sharply contrasting episode within the “Dance of the Knights”, a fragile, refined dance of Juliet with Paris is introduced:

The ball scene shows for the first time Mercutio, Romeo's cheerful, witty friend. In his music (see No. 12, "Masks"), the whimsical march is replaced by a mocking, jocular serenade:

The sceriotic movement, full of textural, harmonious rhythmic surprises, embodies the brilliance, wit, irony of Mercutio (see No. 15, Mercutio):

In the ball scene (at the end of variation No. 14) Romeo's fiery theme is heard, first given in the introduction to the ballet (Romeo notices Juliet). In Madrigal, with which Romeo addresses Juliet, the theme of love appears - one of the most important lyrical melodies of the ballet. The play of major and minor gives a special charm to this light-sad theme:

The themes of love are widely developed in the large duet of heroes (“Scene at the Balcony”, No. 19-21), which concludes Act I. It begins with a contemplative melody, previously only slightly outlined (Romeo, No. 1, final bars). A little further on, in a new way, openly, emotionally intense, the cellos and the English horn sound the theme of love, which first appeared in Madrigal. This whole large stage, as if consisting of separate numbers, is subject to a single musical development. Here several leittems intertwine with each other; each subsequent holding of the same topic is more intense than the previous one, each new topic is more dynamic. At the climax of the whole scene (“Love Dance”), an ecstatic and solemn melody arises:

The feeling of serenity, ecstasy that gripped the heroes is expressed in another theme. Singing, smooth, in a gently swaying rhythm, it is the most danceable among the love themes of the ballet:

In the Love Dance coda, Romeo's theme from the "Introduction" appears:

The second act of the ballet is replete with strong contrasts. Bright folk dances frame the wedding scene, full of deep, concentrated lyricism. In the second half of the action, the sparkling atmosphere of the festival is replaced by the tragic picture of the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt and the death of Mercutio. The funeral procession with the body of Tybalt is the climax of Act II, marking a tragic twist in the plot.

The dances here are magnificent: the impetuous, cheerful "Folk Dance" (No. 22) in the spirit of the tarantella, the rude street dance of five couples, the dance with mandolins. It should be noted the elasticity, plasticity of melodies that convey the elements of dance movements.

In the wedding scene, a portrait of the wise, philanthropic Father Lorenzo is given (No. 28). It is characterized by the music of the choral warehouse, which is distinguished by softness and warmth of intonations:

The appearance of Juliet is accompanied by her new melody at the flute (this is the leittimbre for a number of themes of the heroine of the ballet):

The transparent sound of the flute is then replaced by a duet of cellos and violins - instruments that are close in expressiveness to the human voice. A passionate melody appears, full of bright, "speaking" intonations:

This "musical moment" reproduces the dialogue, as it were! Romeo and Juliet in a similar scene in Shakespeare:

Romeo

Oh, if the measure of my happiness

Equal to yours, my Juliet,

But you have more art

"To express it, then delight

The surrounding air with gentle speeches.

Juliet

Let the melody of your words be alive

Describe untold bliss.

Only a beggar can count his estate,

My love has grown so immensely

That I can't count half of her 39 .

The choral music accompanying the wedding ceremony completes the scene.

Masterfully mastering the technique of symphonic transformation of themes, Prokofiev gives gloomy and ominous features to one of the most cheerful themes of the ballet (“The Street Wakes”, No. 3) in Act II. In the scene of Tybalt's meeting with Mercutio (No. 32), the familiar melody is distorted, its integrity is destroyed. Minor coloration, sharp chromatic undertones that cut the melody, the “howling” timbre of the saxophone - all this dramatically changes its character:

Shakespeare at. Poly. coll. cit., vol. 3, p. 65.

The same theme, as an image of suffering, runs through the scene of Mercutio's death, written by Prokofiev with great psychological depth. The scene is based on the recurring theme of suffering. Along with the expression of pain, it gives a realistically strong picture of the movements and gestures of a weakening person. With a huge effort of will, Mercutio forces himself to smile - fragments of his former themes are barely heard in the orchestra, but they sound in the "distant" upper register of wooden instruments - the oboe and flute.

The returning main theme is interrupted by a pause. The unusualness of the ensuing silence is emphasized by the final chords, "foreign" for the main key (after D minor - triads in B minor and E-flat minor).

Romeo decides to avenge Mercutio. In a duel, he kills Tybalt. Act II ends with a grandiose funeral procession with the body of Tybalt. The piercing roaring sonority of copper, the density of texture, the persistent and monotonous rhythm - all this makes the music of the procession close to the theme of enmity. Another funeral procession - "Juliet's Funeral" in the epilogue of the ballet - is distinguished by the spirituality of grief.

In Act III, everything is focused on the development of the images of Romeo and Juliet, who heroically defend their love in the face of hostile forces. Prokofiev paid special attention here to the image of Juliet.

Throughout Act III, themes from her “portrait” (the first and especially the third) and the themes of love develop, which take on either a dramatic or a mournful appearance. New melodies emerge, marked by tragic intensity and strength.

Act III differs from the first two in the greater continuity of the through action, linking the scenes into a single musical whole (see scenes of Juliet, nos. 41-47). The symphonic development, "not fitting" into the framework of the stage, results in two interludes (No. 43 and 45).

The brief introduction to Act III reproduces the music of the formidable "Order of the Duke" (from Act I).

On stage is Juliet's room (No. 38). With the subtlest tricks, the orchestra recreates the feeling of silence, the ringing, mysterious atmosphere of the night, the farewell of Romeo and Juliet: the theme from the wedding scene passes from the flute and celesta to the rustling sounds of the strings.

The small duet is full of restrained tragedy. Its new melody is based on the theme of farewell (see example 185).

The image contained in it is complex and internally contrasting. Here and fatal doom, and a living impulse. The melody seems to climb up with difficulty and just as hard to fall down. But in the second half of the theme, an active protesting intonation is heard (see bars 5-8). The orchestration emphasizes this: the lively sound of the strings replaces the "fatal" call of the horn and the timbre of the clarinet that sounded at the beginning.

It is interesting that this section of the melody (its second half) develops in further scenes as an independent theme of love (see No. 42, 45). It is also given as an epigraph to the entire ballet in the "Introduction".

The theme of farewell is completely different in Interlude (No. 43). Here she acquires the character of a passionate impulse, tragic determination (Juliet is ready to die in the name of love). The texture and timbre coloring of the theme now entrusted to brass instruments is changing dramatically:

In the dialogue scene between Juliet and Lorenzo, at the moment when the monk gives Juliet a sleeping pill, the theme of Death (“Juliet alone”, No. 47) sounds for the first time - a musical image that exactly corresponds to Shakespeare's:

Cold languid fear drills into my veins. It freezes life heat 40 .

The automatically pulsating movement of the eighths conveys a numbness; muffled rising basses - growing "languid fear":

In Act III, the genre elements that characterize the setting of the action are used much more sparingly than before. Two graceful miniatures - "Morning Serenade" and "Dance of Girls with L and L and I" - are introduced into the fabric of the ballet to create the subtlest dramatic contrast. Both numbers are transparent in texture: light accompaniment and a melody entrusted to solo instruments. "Morning Serenade" is performed by Juliet's friends under her window, not knowing that she is dead.

40 Elephant Juliet.

41 While it is still an imaginary death.

the clear ringing of the strings sounds like a light melody that slides like a beam (instruments: mandolins placed backstage, flute piccolo, solo violin):

Dance of the girls with lilies, congratulating the bride, hollow fragile grace:

But then a brief fatal theme is heard (“By the bedside of Jula etta,” No. 50), which appears for the third time in ballet 42:

At the moment when the Mother and the Nurse go to wake Juliet, her theme passes sadly and weightlessly in the highest register of the violins. Juliet is dead.

The epilogue opens with the scene "Juliet's Funeral". The theme of death, conveyed by the violins, melodically developed, surrounded

42 See also the endings of the scenes "Girl Juliet", "Romeo at Father Lorenzo's".

From shimmering mysterious piano to stunning fortissimo - such is the dynamic scale of this funeral march.

Precise strokes mark the appearance of Romeo (the theme of love) and his death. The awakening of Juliet, her death, the reconciliation of the Montagues and the Capuleti constitute the content of the last scene.

The finale of the ballet is a bright anthem of love triumphing over death. It is based on the gradually increasing dazzling sound of Juliet's theme (the third theme, given again in a major). The ballet ends with quiet, “reconciling” harmonies.

Ticket number 3

Romanticism

Socio-historical background of romanticism. Features of the ideological content and artistic method. Characteristic manifestations of romanticism in music

Classicism, which dominated the art of the Enlightenment, in the 19th century gives way to romanticism, under the banner of which the musical creativity of the first half of the century also develops.

The change in artistic trends was a consequence of the enormous social changes that marked the social life of Europe at the turn of the two centuries.

The most important prerequisite for this phenomenon in the art of European countries was the movement of the masses, awakened by the Great French Revolution *.

* “The revolutions of 1648 and 1789 were not the English and French revolutions; these were revolutions on a European scale ... they proclaimed the political system of the new European society ... These revolutions expressed to a much greater extent the needs of the entire world of that time than the needs of those parts of the world where they took place, i.e. England and France ”(Marx K. and Engels F. Works, 2nd ed., v.6, p. 115).

The revolution, which opened a new era in the history of mankind, led to a tremendous upsurge in the spiritual strength of the peoples of Europe. The struggle for the triumph of democratic ideals characterizes the European history of the period under review.

Inextricably linked with the people's liberation movement, a new type of artist emerged - an advanced public figure who strove for the complete emancipation of the spiritual forces of man, for the highest laws of justice. Not only writers like Shelley, Heine or Hugo, but also musicians often defended their convictions by taking up a pen. High intellectual development, a broad ideological outlook, and civic consciousness characterize Weber, Schubert, Chopin, Berlioz, Wagner, Liszt, and many other composers of the 19th century*.

* Beethoven's name is not mentioned in this listing, as Beethoven's art belongs to a different era.

At the same time, the decisive factor in the formation of the ideology of the artists of the new time was the deep disappointment of the general public in the results of the Great French Revolution. The illusory nature of the ideals of the Enlightenment was revealed. The principles of "freedom, equality and fraternity" remained a utopian dream. The bourgeois system, which replaced the feudal-absolutist regime, was distinguished by merciless forms of exploitation of the masses.

"The state of reason has suffered a complete collapse." Public and state institutions that arose after the revolution "... turned out to be an evil, bitterly disappointing caricature of the brilliant promises of the Enlightenment" *.

* Marx K. and Engels F. Works, ed. 2nd, vol. 19, p. 192 and 193.

Deceived in the best of hopes, unable to come to terms with reality, the artists of the new time expressed their protest against the new order of things.

Thus, a new artistic direction arose and developed - romanticism.

The denunciation of bourgeois narrow-mindedness, inert philistinism, philistinism forms the basis of the ideological platform of romanticism. It mainly determined the content of the artistic classics of that time. But it is precisely in the nature of the critical attitude to capitalist reality that the difference between its two main streams; it is revealed depending on the interests of which social circles this or that art objectively reflected.

The artists, associated with the ideology of the outgoing class, regretting the "good old days", in their hatred of the existing order of things, turned away from the surrounding reality. Romanticism of this kind, called "passive", is characterized by the idealization of the Middle Ages, the attraction to mysticism, the glorification of a fictional world far from capitalist civilization.

These tendencies are also characteristic of the French novels of Chateaubriand, and the poems of the English poets of the "lake school", and the German short stories of Novalis and Wackenroder, and the Nazarene artists in Germany, and the Pre-Raphaelite artists in England. The philosophical and aesthetic treatises of the “passive” romantics (“The Genius of Christianity” by Chateaubriand, “Christianity or Europe” by Novalis, articles on the aesthetics of Ruskin) promoted the separation of art from life, glorified mysticism.

Another direction of romanticism - "effective" - ​​reflected the discord with reality in a different way. Artists of this type expressed their attitude to modernity in the form of a passionate protest. Rebellion against the new social situation, upholding the ideals of justice and freedom raised by the era of the French Revolution - this motif in a variety of interpretations dominates the new era in most European countries. It permeates the work of Byron, Hugo, Shelley, Heine, Schumann, Berlioz, Wagner and many other writers and composers of the post-revolutionary generation.

Romanticism in art as a whole is a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon. Each of the two main currents mentioned above had its own varieties and nuances. In each national culture, depending on the socio-political development of the country, its history, the psychological makeup of the people, artistic traditions, the stylistic features of romanticism took on peculiar forms. Hence the multitude of its characteristic national offshoots. And even in the work of individual romantic artists, different, sometimes contradictory currents of romanticism sometimes crossed, intertwined.

Manifestations of romanticism in literature, visual arts, theater and music varied significantly. Nevertheless, in the development of various arts of the XIX century there are many important points of contact. Without understanding their features, it is difficult to comprehend the nature of new paths in the musical creativity of the "romantic age".

First of all, romanticism enriched art with many new themes, unknown in the artistic work of previous centuries or previously touched upon with much less ideological and emotional depth.

The liberation of the individual from the psychology of feudal society led to the assertion of the high value of the spiritual world of man. The depth and variety of emotional experiences are of great interest to artists. Fine elaboration lyric-psychological images- one of the leading achievements of art of the XIX century. Truthfully reflecting the complex inner life of people, romanticism opened up a new sphere of feelings in art.

Even in the depiction of the objective external world, the artists started from personal perception. It was said above that humanism and fighting ardor in defending one's views determined their place in the social movements of the era. And at the same time, the works of art of the Romantics, including those that deal with social problems, often have the character of an intimate outpouring. The name of one of the most outstanding and significant literary works of that era is indicative - "Confession of the Son of the Century" (Musset). It is no coincidence that lyric poetry occupied a leading position in the work of writers of the 19th century. The flourishing of lyrical genres, the expansion of the thematic range of lyrics are unusually characteristic of the art of that period.

And in musical creativity, the theme of “lyrical confession” acquires dominant importance, especially love lyrics, which most fully reveal the inner world of the “hero”. This theme runs like a red thread through all the art of romanticism, from the chamber romances of Schubert to the monumental symphonies of Berlioz, the grandiose musical dramas of Wagner. None of the classical composers created in music such diverse and finely defined pictures of nature, such convincingly developed images of languor and dreams, suffering and spiritual outburst, as romantics. In none of them do we find intimate diary pages, highly characteristic of 19th-century composers.

Tragic conflict between the hero and his environment- a theme that dominates the literature of romanticism. The motive of loneliness permeates the work of many writers of that era - from Byron to Heine, from Stendhal to Chamisso ... And for musical art, images of discord with reality become a highly characteristic beginning, refracted in it as a motive of longing for an inaccessibly beautiful world, and as an artist's admiration for the elemental life of nature. This theme of discord gives rise to both bitter irony over the imperfection of the real world, and dreams, and a tone of passionate protest.

The heroic-revolutionary theme sounds in a new way in the works of the romantics, which was one of the main ones in the musical work of the “gluco-Beethoven era”. Refracted through the personal mood of the artist, it acquires a characteristic pathetic appearance. At the same time, in contrast to classical traditions, the theme of heroism among romantics is interpreted not in a universal, but in an emphatically patriotic national way.

Here we touch upon another fundamentally important feature of the artistic creation of the "romantic age" as a whole.

The general trend of romantic art is also the increased interest in national culture. He was called to life by a heightened national self-consciousness, which was brought with it by the national liberation wars against the Napoleonic invasion. Various manifestations of folk-national traditions attract artists of the new time. By the beginning of the 19th century, fundamental studies of folklore, history, and ancient literature appeared. Medieval legends, gothic art, the culture of the Renaissance, buried in oblivion, are being resurrected. Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes become the rulers of the thoughts of the new generation. History comes to life in novels and poems, in the images of dramatic and musical theater (Walter Scott, Hugo, Dumas, Wagner, Meyerbeer). Deep study and development of national folklore expanded the range of artistic images, replenishing the art with previously little-known themes from the sphere of the heroic epic, ancient legends, images of fairy tale fantasy, pagan poetry, and nature.

At the same time, a keen interest is awakened in the originality of life, life, and art of the peoples of other countries.

It is enough to compare, for example, Moliere's Don Juan, whom the French author presented as a nobleman at the court of Louis XIV and a Frenchman of the purest water, with Byron's Don Juan. The classic playwright ignores the Spanish origin of his hero, while in the romantic poet he is a living Iberian, acting in the specific situation of Spain, Asia Minor, and the Caucasus. So, if in exotic operas widespread in the 18th century (for example, Rameau's "Gallant India" or Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio") Turks, Persians, American natives or "Indians" acted essentially as civilized Parisians or Viennese of the same 18th century, then already Weber in the oriental scenes of "Oberon" uses an authentic oriental chant to depict harem guards, and his "Preciosa" is saturated with Spanish folk motifs.

For the musical art of the new era, interest in national culture had consequences of enormous significance.

The 19th century is characterized by the flourishing of national music schools based on the traditions of folk art. This applies not only to those countries that already in the previous two centuries produced composers of world significance (such as Italy, France, Austria, Germany). A number of national cultures (Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Norway and others), which until then had remained in the shadows, appeared on the world stage with their own independent national schools, many of which began to play an important, and sometimes leading role in the development of pan-European music.

Of course, even in the "pre-romantic era" Italian, French, German music differed from each other in features emanating from their national makeup. However, tendencies towards a certain universalism of the musical language * clearly prevailed over this national beginning.

* So, for example, in the Renaissance, the development of professional music throughout Western Europe was subject to Franco-Flemish traditions. In the 17th and partly the 18th centuries, the melodic style dominated everywhere. Italian operas. Initially formed in Italy as an expression of national culture, it subsequently became the bearer of a pan-European court aesthetics, with which national artists in different countries fought, etc.

In modern times, reliance on local, "local", national becomes the defining moment of musical art. Pan-European achievements are now made up of the contribution of many distinct national schools.

As a result of the new ideological content of art, new expressive techniques appeared, which are characteristic of all the diverse branches of romanticism. This commonality allows us to talk about the unity artistic method of romanticism in general, which equally distinguishes it both from the classicism of the Enlightenment and from the critical realism of the 19th century. It is equally characteristic of Hugo's dramas, and of Byron's poetry, and of Liszt's symphonic poems.

We can say that the main feature of this method is heightened emotional expression. The romantic artist conveyed in his art a lively boiling of passions, which did not fit into the usual schemes of enlightenment aesthetics. The primacy of feeling over reason is an axiom of the theory of romanticism. In the degree of excitement, passion, colorfulness of works of art of the 19th century, first of all, the originality of romantic expression is manifested. It is no coincidence that music, the expressive specificity of which most fully corresponded to the romantic structure of feelings, was declared by the romantics an ideal form of art.

An equally important feature of the Romantic method is fantastic fiction. The imaginary world, as it were, elevates the artist above the unattractive reality. According to Belinsky, the sphere of romanticism was that "soil of the soul and heart, from where all indefinite aspirations for the better and the sublime rise, trying to find satisfaction in the ideals created by fantasy."

This deep need of Romantic artists was superbly answered by the new fabulously pantheistic sphere of images, borrowed from folklore, from ancient medieval legends. For the musical creativity of the 19th century, she had, as we we will see later, paramount.

The new conquests of romantic art, which significantly enriched artistic expressiveness in comparison with the classicist stage, include the display of phenomena in their contradiction and dialectical unity. Overcoming the conditional distinctions inherent in classicism between the realm of the sublime and everyday life, the artists of the 19th century deliberately pushed life's conflicts together, emphasizing not only their contrast, but also their internal connection. Like the principle of "drama antithesis" underlies many works of that period. It is typical for the romantic theater of Hugo, for the operas of Meyerbeer, the instrumental cycles of Schumann, Berlioz. It is no coincidence that it was the "romantic age" that rediscovered the realistic dramaturgy of Shakespeare, with all its wide contrasts in life. We shall see later what an important fruitful role Shakespeare's work played in the formation of new romantic music.

The characteristic features of the method of the new art of the XIX century should also include attraction to figurative concreteness, which is emphasized by the delineation of characteristic details. Detailing- a typical phenomenon in the art of modern times, even for the work of those figures who were not romantics. In music, this trend is manifested in the desire for maximum refinement of the image, for a significant differentiation of the musical language in comparison with the art of classicism.

The new ideas and images of romantic art could not be matched by the artistic means that developed on the basis of the aesthetics of classicism, characteristic of the Enlightenment. In their theoretical writings (see, for example, Hugo's preface to the drama Cromwell, 1827), the romantics, defending unlimited freedom of creativity, declared a merciless struggle against the rationalistic canons of classicism. They enriched each area of ​​art with genres, forms and expressive techniques that correspond to the new content of their work.

Let us follow how this process of renewal was expressed within the framework of musical art.

Romanticism is an ideological and artistic trend in European and American culture of the end XVIII- 1st half XIX in.
In music, romanticism was formed in 1820s. and retained its meaning until the beginning XX in. The leading principle of romanticism is the sharp opposition between everyday life and dreams, everyday existence and the higher ideal world created by the creative imagination of the artist.

He reflected the disappointment of the widest circles in the results of the French Revolution of 1789-1794, in the ideology of the Enlightenment and bourgeois progress. Therefore, it is characterized by a critical orientation, a denial of the philistine life in a society where people are only concerned with the pursuit of profit. The rejected world, where everything, up to human relations, is subject to the law of sale, romantics opposed a different truth - the truth of feelings, the free will of a creative person. Hence their

close attention to the inner world of a person, a subtle analysis of his complex spiritual movements. Romanticism made a decisive contribution to the establishment of art as a lyrical self-expression of the artist.

Initially, romanticism acted as a principle

opponent of classicism. The ancient ideal was opposed by the art of the Middle Ages, distant exotic countries. Romanticism discovered the treasures of folk art - songs, tales, legends. However, the opposition of romanticism to classicism is still relative, since the romantics accepted and developed further the achievements of the classics. Many composers were greatly influenced by the work of the last Viennese classic -
L. Beethoven.

The principles of romanticism were affirmed by outstanding composers from different countries. These are K. M. Weber, G. Berlioz, F. Mendelssohn, R. Schumann, F. Chopin,

F. Schubert F. List, R. Wagner. G. Verdi.

All these composers adopted the symphonic method of music development, based on the consistent transformation of musical thought, which generates its opposite within itself. But the romantics strove for greater concreteness of musical ideas, their closer connection with the images of literature and other forms of art. This led them to create software works.

But the main achievement of romantic music was manifested in a sensitive, subtle and deep expression of the inner world of a person, the dialectics of his spiritual experiences. Unlike the classics of romance, they did not so much affirm the ultimate goal of human aspirations, acquired in a stubborn struggle, but deployed an endless movement towards a goal that was constantly moving away, slipping away. Therefore, the role of transitions, smooth changes of moods is so great in the works of romantics.
For a romantic musician, the process is more important than the result, more important than the achievement. On the one hand, they gravitate towards the miniature, which they often include in the cycle of other, as a rule, diverse plays; on the other hand, they affirm free compositions, in the spirit of romantic poems. It was the romantics who developed a new genre - the symphonic poem. The contribution of romantic composers to the development of the symphony, opera, and ballet is also extremely great.
Among the composers of the 2nd half of the 19th - early 20th centuries: in whose work romantic traditions contributed to the establishment of humanistic ideas, - I. Brahms, A. Bruckner, G. Mahler, R. Strauss, E. Grieg, B. Sour cream, A. Dvorak and others

Almost all the great masters of Russian classical music paid tribute to romanticism in Russia. The role of the romantic worldview in the works of the founder of Russian musical classics is great M. I. Glinka, especially in his opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila".

In the work of his great successors, with a general realistic orientation, the role of romantic motifs was significant. They affected in a number of fabulous-fantastic operas N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, in symphonic poems P.I. Tchaikovsky and composers of the "Mighty Handful".
The romantic beginning permeates the works of A. N. Scriabin and S. V. Rachmaninov.

2. R.-Korsakov

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