Last evening I attended opening night of Romeo and Juliet. Since I am not as well versed as many of you on the technicalities of ballet, my review will be strictly my impressions and appreciation. For me, the performance had its ups and downs. The audience, including me, was most energized and excited by two elements: (1) the strong performances, swordplay, energy, and command of the stage by Joaquin de Luz as Tybalt and Daniel Ulbricht as Mercutio. Wow! Both command the stage and Ulbricht had the time of his life with all his jumps and spins. In the sword fights they fed off each other. It was sizzling! (2) a small troop of little boys from the SAB school, one of whom could not have been more than 5 or 6, who took center stage and whirled
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I had seen Sterling Hyltin in the role in 2012, with Robert Fairchild as her Romeo. That performance was electric, moving, tragic, the connection between them palpable. Last night IMO Sterling did capture the essence of a young conflicted girl. Her dancing was, as always, effervescent, light, fluid, musical, but the choreography had her doing a lot of running back and forth on the stage, which made her seem to me more like the mad scene in Giselle. But the key to the ballet, at least as I read Shakespeare, is the tragic love story. It takes two for a love story and I, at least, did not feel the magic, chemistry, despair, and tragic loss of this pair. Harrison Coll seems very young and unseasoned. Although he has a lovely line and beautifully proportioned body for ballet, and he executed the steps competently, to me he lacks dramatic presence. He can't yet hold the stage on his own. Compare to De Luz, who in his bright yellow costume and surrounded by a stageful of other dancers, commands your eye even standing still as you view his evil glance and clanking swords. Coll seemed always to be racing around like a dervish(maybe that was intended). But I wanted to be more moved by the balcony scene and I wasn't. The pas de deux where he turns her first with one hand and then the other was okay, but the feeling between them was lacking. I almost felt that Hyltin was trying to inject on her own the connection that didn't develop between
I had seen Sterling Hyltin in the role in 2012, with Robert Fairchild as her Romeo. That performance was electric, moving, tragic, the connection between them palpable. Last night IMO Sterling did capture the essence of a young conflicted girl. Her dancing was, as always, effervescent, light, fluid, musical, but the choreography had her doing a lot of running back and forth on the stage, which made her seem to me more like the mad scene in Giselle. But the key to the ballet, at least as I read Shakespeare, is the tragic love story. It takes two for a love story and I, at least, did not feel the magic, chemistry, despair, and tragic loss of this pair. Harrison Coll seems very young and unseasoned. Although he has a lovely line and beautifully proportioned body for ballet, and he executed the steps competently, to me he lacks dramatic presence. He can't yet hold the stage on his own. Compare to De Luz, who in his bright yellow costume and surrounded by a stageful of other dancers, commands your eye even standing still as you view his evil glance and clanking swords. Coll seemed always to be racing around like a dervish(maybe that was intended). But I wanted to be more moved by the balcony scene and I wasn't. The pas de deux where he turns her first with one hand and then the other was okay, but the feeling between them was lacking. I almost felt that Hyltin was trying to inject on her own the connection that didn't develop between