Paris Opera Orchestra
Étoiles, Premiers Danseurs and Corps de Ballet of the Paris Opera

Main informations
In this production created for the Opera Ballet in 1984, Rudolf Nureyev opted for powerful dramatization. Splendour and violence, truculence and beauty mingle, rekindling the passion of Shakespeare’s drama. Scrupulously adhering to Prokofiev’s score, itself very close to the play, the choreographer produced a version of Romeo and Juliet in which “the young boy becomes a man” opposite a passionate Juliet who, barely out of childhood, also tragically enters womanhood. Their love cannot be openly declared, as their respective families, the Montagues and the Capulets, are locked into an ancestral feud... Inspired by the Italian Renaissance, the sumptuous sets and costumes by Ezio Frigerio and Mauro Pagano transport us to a painstakingly recreated Verona.

Ballet in three acts
Libretto after William Shakespeare
Music / Sergei Prokofiev
Choreography and staging / Rudolf Nureyev
Sets / Ezio Frigerio
Costumes / Ezio Frigerio, Mauro Pagano
Lighting design / Vinicio Cheli
Conductor / Vello Pähn
Paris Opera Orchestra
Presented by Aurélie Dupont
Paris Opera’s Dance Director
Film director / Nathan Benisty
Romeo / Mathias Heymann, Danseur Etoile
Juliet / Myriam Ould-Braham, Danseuse Etoile
Mercutio / Francesco Mura, Premier Danseur
Tybalt / Stéphane Bullion, Danseur Etoile
Benvolio / Marc Moreau, Premier Danseur
Rosaline / Hannah O'Neill, Première Danseuse
Pâris / Daniel Stokes, Sujet
Lady Capulet / Fanny Gorse, Sujet
Corps de Ballet of the Paris Opera