The Sociedad de Conciertos La Filarmónica presents next Thursday 23rd May in the Symphonic Hall of the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid the work Romeo and Juliet by Sergey Prokofiev.
In 1934, the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad (now the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg) commissioned the Russian musician and composer to write the music for the ballet Romeo and Juliet. The outcome of this premiere demonstrates the difficult relationship between an artist as brilliant, complex and contradictory as Prokofiev and the implacable Soviet regime.
Prokofiev spent the entire summer of 1935 composing beautiful music to serve the plot and characters of William Shakespeare’s play. The composer respected all the scenes except the last one, which he replaced with a happy ending that made more sense to him from a choreographic logic, going so far as to state: “The dead cannot dance”. Thus, in his version, Romeo and Juliet survived and fled Verona together.
In the midst of socialist realism, the outcome imagined by Prokofiev did not please the Soviet authorities, who considered it disrespectful to the original work. The premiere was delayed, and the composer was forced to premiere Romeo and Juliet far from his country. Finally, having given in to reviving Shakespeare’s tragic ending, Prokofiev was able to premiere his ballet at the Kirov Theatre in January 1940, to great acclaim.
The Orchestre National de France, conducted by Cristian Măcelaru, will perform the Russian musician’s piece, with Alexandre Kantorow (pictured) at the piano. The concert programme will be completed by Fauré’s Pavane in F-sharp minor, op. 50, and Chopin’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in F minor, op. 21. Tickets can be purchased at this link.
