"Roméo et Juliette" at the Maggio with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo
Roméo et Juliette, in the interpretation of the choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot, on music by Sergej Prokofiev and the Company Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.
On the podium, at the helm of the Maggio Orchestra, Garrett Keast.
Three events in the Maggio Main Hall: on January 10th and 11th at 8 pm and on January 12th at 3:30 pm
Roméo et Juliette will be followed on January 16th, 17th and 18th by the ballet Lac, from The Swan Lake
Florence, January 8th, 2025 - The 2025 season that began with the great success of the three film Fantasia - Live in concert continues with the debut of the company Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo for the show Roméo et Juliette, the ballet based on the William Shakespeare tragedy by Sergei Prokofiev with choreography by Jean-Christophe Maillot. Three appointments: on January 10th and 11th at 8 pm and on January 12th at 3:30 pm. In this capacity the Company will bring to Maggio 16, 17 and 18 January the ballet Lac from "Swan Lake" always with the choreography of Maillot on the music of Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij . On the podium, at the helm of the Maggio Orchestra, Garrett Keast, also at his Florentine debut. Ernest Pignon-Ernest is in charge of the scenes, the costumes are by Jérôme Kaplan and the lights by Dominique Drillot.
Protagonists Katrin Schrader as Juliet; Jérôme Tisserand as Romeo; Marianna Barabas and Laura Tisserand (January 11th) play Madonna Capuleti; Simone Tribuna and Alvaro Prieto (recita of 11 January) are Tebaldo and the role of La nutrice is played by Lydia Wellington and Gaëlle Riou (January 11th).
Michaël Grünecker and Daniele Delvecchio (January 11th) are Mercuzio; Lukas Simonetto plays Benvolio; Alessio Scognamiglio and Lennart Radtke (January 11th) are Paride; Rosalina is played by Juliette Klein and Candela Beseben (January 11th); Jaat Benoot and Matèj Urban (January 11th) are Frate Lorenzo. The two acolytes are Cristian Oliveri and Christian Tworzyanski, played on January 11th by Koen Havenith and Zino Merckx.
The story, which is naturally based on the famous Shakespearean masterpiece, has been revised by Jean-Christophe Maillot through a choreographic perspective that does not try to paraphrase the literary monument of the Bard. Avoid following the dispute between Capulet and Montague until its sad epilogue, the choreographer revisits the tragedy from an original point of view. The ballet thus transports us into the tormented soul of Friar Lorenzo, who, wishing to do good, instead causes the death of the two lovers.
Romeo et Juliette, first performed in Monte Carlo at the Salle Garnier of the Opéra in December 1996, is therefore the flashback of this shocked religious who wonders how it could have come to this. The choreographer Maillot interprets Shakespeare’s tragedy in a different way from the classic social clash or the usual struggle between families, but rather as a real drama that - finally - causes the death of two young people linked to each other by love issues and not by hatred.
In fact, in Maillot’s vision, the Capulets and the Montagues are very similar: they are young teenagers, full of excesses and provoke themselves on the street; but all this more for fun than for the will to really hurt themselves. Their fights are never really violent, but they are at most buffetsthat define a rivalry between two bands that no one takes seriously, not even Tebaldo and Mercutio, the most vehement of the two groups. Unfortunately one day this "game" gets out of hand: a mortal blow is inflicted that drags the protagonists of the story into a spiral of true violence. But before they kill, we see on stage some young people that Jean-Christophe Maillot shows us acting impulsively without thinking about the consequences.In the development of the story Romeo is a young man disoriented (and almost irresponsible) when he meets a new girlfriend - Giulietta, precisely - who makes him forget his past conquests, while the latter really falls in love for the first time in his life. The feelings she feels are so strong that they make her see Romeo as "the embodiment of love" and not as a simple lover: therefore an absolute love in front of which everything else loses meaning.
The show Roméo et Juliette is linked to the next ballet on the programme at the Teatro del Maggio: LAC - from Il lago dei cigni, always curated by the original choreography of Jean-Christophe Maillot, conducted by Garrett Keast and with the participation of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, based on Pyotr’s popular ballet Il'ič Čajkovskij; also scheduled in the Main Hall of the Maggio, on January 16th, 17th and 18th, 2025.
La compagnie des Ballets de Monte-Carlo
1909 marked the beginning of a strong establishment of choreographic art in Munich. Sergei Djagilev presents his Ballets Russes for the first time in Paris. They settle in Monte Carlo, which becomes their creative workshop for two decades. From the Principality, Diaghilev reformed the ballet of his era in all its forms. On his death in 1929, the company was dissolved. Many personalities and choreographers make it reborn under different names, but in 1951 it disappears definitively.
In 1985, the Compagnie des Ballets de Monte-Carlo was founded by S.A.R. the Princess of Hanover, who wanted to continue the Monegasque tradition of singing. The new company is directed by Ghislaine Thesmar and Pierre Lacotte, then by Jean-Yves Esquerre.
In 1993S.A.R. the Princess of Hanover appointed Jean-Christophe Maillot as head of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo. With his experience acquired at the Rosella Hightower and John Neumeier, as well as being the choreographer and director of the Centre Choréographique National de Tours, Maillot has made a breakthrough in the company, for which he creates more than thirty ballets, Many of which will be included in the repertoire of major international companies, including Vers un pays sage (1995); Romeo and Juliet (1996); Cinderella (1999); La Belle (2001); Le Songe (2005); Altro Canto (2006); Faust (2007); LAC - from Swan Lake (2011); Chore (2013) and Casse-Noisette Compagnie (2013).
Jean-Christophe Maillot also enriches the company’s repertoire by allowing emerging choreographers to work with the fifty dancers of the Ballets, including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Shen Wei, Alonzo King, Emio Greco, Chris Haring, Marco Goecke, Lucinda Childs and Marie Chouinard.
In 2000, Maillot created the Monaco Dance Forum, an international showcase for dance that presents an eclectic variety of performances, exhibitions, workshops and conferences. The company regularly participates in this festival, as does the Académie Princesse Grâce.