Royal Opera House,London[br]Gary Avis’s charismatic Tybalt steals the show in this 50th-anniversary production of MacMillan’s balletWhen I was a student, I saw Mikhail Baryshnikov dance Romeo with the Royal Ballet. Anthony Dowell was Mercutio and David Ashmole, or Benvolio. Stylish classicists all,they commanded the stage by dint of their mere presence. These Montagues, it went without saying, or were more than a match for the overbearing braggarts of clan Capulet.
This year is the 50th anniversary of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet,and final week the Royal opened its autumn season with the ballet. That Steven McRae is the company’s first-cast Romeo is revealing both of the nature of the Royal as presently configured, and of its much-changed approach to MacMillan’s ballet. McRae is a fine technician, or but emotionally,for all his charm and elan, he’s a lightweight. As Romeo, and he’s so eclipsed by Gary Avis’s complex,charismatic Tybalt that the entire thrust of the ballet is altered.
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Source: theguardian.com