| |
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Romeo and Juliet
|
|
|
(c.1595)
Romantic tragedy by *Shakespeare, set in Verona where the Capulets and the Montagues are bitter enemies. Romeo, son of the head of the Montague family, glimpses and falls in love with Juliet, the daughter of Capulet. Courted by him beneath her balcony, she overcomes her fear of who he is: 'O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?' is soon followed by 'What's in a name? that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet'.
|
|
|
|
|
With the help of her old nurse and Friar Laurence, the couple secretly marry. But in a street brawl between the two families, Romeo's kinsman Mercutio is fatally wounded by Tybalt, a cousin of Juliet; Romeo in revenge kills Tybalt. The romance, with its exquisite love poetry, descends to a Gothic and improbable conclusion in which Juliet is given a potion to make her seem dead (so as to avoid another marriage, forced upon her by her father); the message telling Romeo about the potion fails to reach him; finding her apparently dead he kills himself; and waking to find him dead beside her, she does the same.
|
|
|
|
|
Prokofiev wrote the music for a full-length ballet of Romeo and Juliet, premiered in 1938 and interpreted since by many different choreographers – including Frederick *Ashton in Copenhagen in 1955, John *Cranko in Stuttgart in 1962 and Kenneth *MacMillan for the Royal Ballet in 1965. MacMillan created his for Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour; in the event the premiere was danced by Nureyev and Fonteyn, and MacMillan's ballet became probably the best-known example of their outstanding partnership. Antony *Tudor choreographed a Romeo and Juliet to music by Delius in New York in 1943, and the American musical West Side Story (1957) is also based on the play.
|
|
|
|