ABT 2015 - (another) Romeo and Juliet

I probably should've purchased a lottery ticket yesterday because I WON MORE TICKETS TO ABT!!  After Tuesday's less-than-perfect outing, I was happy to get another chance to be transported and romanced by love and tragedy.  I took one of my beautiful goddaughters as my date, as her graduated-from-middle-school present.  She had never seen Romeo and Juliet  before, so it was treat to share it with her.  And boy, am I glad we went.  It was everything I hoped it would be.

It was Russian ballerina Evgenia Obratztsova's debut with ABT and she was...magical.  Her dancing was so airy and fluid and her acting was heartbreaking.  I could see her grow from the girlish imp dancing with a doll in her first scene to a grown woman fighting for her life and love in later scenes.  And she was gloriously partnered with Herman Cornejo, long one of my favorites for his technical bravado, but here he was also so moving and touching as an actor.  I could also see Romeo's maturation throughout, from his surface infatuation of Rosaline to his thunderstruck love for Juliet.  He was also delightful in his interactions with his pals Mercutio and Benvolio.  They had just as much chemistry as friends as Cornejo did with his Juliet.  But all of their dancing was exquisite and pitch perfect in storytelling - each step had a reason to move the story forward.  It was fabuolous.

There were so many sweet little touches throughout the ballet, like how Juliet responded to her parents, or how Romeo gently took her hand  in the crypt before he took his poison.  I've  seen this ballet a number of times and have never seen that particular acting choice before; I loved it.  The pas de deux were spectactular, all of them, and I was so happy to see the spark, verve and lightness I had been missing Tuesday night.

Several of the cast members were the same - I again saw Joseph Gorak as Benvolio (loved him again), Grant DeLong as Paris and Roman Zhurbin as Juliet's father.  They were all terrific in different ways since they were performing with other leads.  Daniil Simkin was Mercutio and I loved his dancing, although I thought his characterization was incomplete.  But his dancing was amazing.  Juliet's friends seemed more in sync tonight, though one took an unfortunate spill during the ballroom scene.  Cornejo, as Romeo, took a moment, totally in character, to see if the girl was ok before continuing his solo.  It was lovely, even if it did make me nervous that someone else would go down before the evening was over.

The music was definitely performed more brightly than it was Tuesday night, though there were a few really bad notes bleated out during the first act's Dance of the Knights.  And I think there was a trumpet who was just having a really bad night, but at least the tempi were more interesting and kept the ballet moving forward instead of just sitting there.

All in all, I loved loved loved seeing Romeo and Juliet for the second time and I hope with all my hopes that Obraztsova comes back to ABT to dance again and again.  I'd love to see her and Cornejo become a regular duo who performs all the story ballets.  I also had fun sharing this ballet with my goddaughter, who really loved it.  She just read the play in school, so it was very fun for her to see the story set to music and dance.  And seeing a good performance last night only whets my appetite even more for my third trip to R&J tomorrow night for my uber-favorite ballerina's final performance.  Oh.  Even typing that makes me cry.  I just hope I can get this darned camera to behave tomorrow night.  If I end up with only blurry photos from Julie's final performance, I'll be pretty bummed.  The production photo I have here were cribbed from the internet - my standard disclaimer applies and I'll remove if asked.  I'll be back with one last post on this gorgeous ballet after the weekend...