Music from the Ballet Romeo and Juliet
Sergei Prokofiev

THE STORY

As part of the Soviet Union’s efforts to woo Prokofiev back to Russia, the Mariinsky Theater (then the Kirov) commissioned a ballet: Romeo and Juliet. When the Kirov’s management fell out with the government, the ballet switched theaters to the Bolshoi—but there, too, the composer faced difficulties. Although he quickly completed the ballet in 1935, the company complained that the music was impossible to dance to, and he received criticism for his decision to make the ending of the tragedy a happy one.

While his ballet remained without a company, Prokofiev arranged two orchestral suites from the score which were performed before the ballet’s premiere in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1938. Not until 1940 did Romeo and Juliet receive its Russian premiere—at the Kirov, with the ending restored to its tragic conclusion. In 1946, when the ballet—revised yet again—received its Bolshoi premiere, it was finally declared a success. From this, Prokofiev arranged yet another symphonic suite. Tonight’s performance brings together music from the ballet and from the three suites.

LISTEN FOR

• The lyrical and amorous theme of the Introduction, presented in the strings
• Driving rhythms, jagged melodies, and spiky accents in The Morning Dance and Dance
• Alternating episodes of scurrying strings and menacing low brass in The Fight
• Careening figures in the strings and brass, propelled by motor-like percussion in The Death of Tybalt
• The high, anguished horn solo, which grows darker with restatements in the low brass, in Romeo at Juliet’s Tomb
• The reprise of the flute melody from Juliet as a Young Girl in Death of Juliet, which brings the tragedy to an emotional conclusion

INSTRUMENTATION

Piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, tenor saxophone, mandolin, six horns, two trumpets, cornet, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps, piano, celesta, strings