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Prokofiev Suite no. 2 from Romeo and Juliet Opus 64b

SERGEI PROKOFIEV            1891-1953
 
Suite No. 2 from Romeo and Juliet  Op.64b
 
 
1                        Montagues and Capulets
2                        Juliet the Young Girl
3                        Friar lawrence
4                        Dance
5                        Romeo and Juliet Before Parting
6                        Dance of the Antilles Girls
7                        Romeo at Juliet’s Grave

 
 
In the early 1930s, after nine years spent in the United States and then France, Sergey Prokofiev began contemplating a move back to Russia. As a brash young composer in Russia he had found himself either praised or reviled as a modernist; in America and France he was more often seen as a representative of the old Russia he had left behind.

In 1934, he began discussions with the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad about writing a lyrical ballet; they suggested Romeo and Juliet, but later backed out. So in 1935, Prokofiev signed a contract with the Moscow Bolshoi Theater for a ballet based on Shakespeare's play, but the Bolshoi subsequently rejected the work, calling it "impossible to dance to." Eventually the composer signed contracts with the Leningrad Ballet School in 1937 to stage the first performance, where its success led to further productions by the Kirov and later Bolshoi ballets.

Pragmatically, Prokofiev arranged his ballet music into two orchestral suites, both of which capture the essential mood of the ballet and have become firm favourites in the repertoire.

The second suite opens with The Montagues and Capulets, music which is drawn from the beginning of the ballet and features Juliet's formal dance with Paris, chosen by her family to be her husband. Juliet the Young Girl is from Act I, Scene II, and portrays the playful nature of Juliet, who is only a child of fourteen. The music ends quietly as Juliet sees her reflection in a mirror and realizes she is on the threshold of becoming a woman. Friar Laurence represents the kind priest who befriends the young lovers, first by a melody given to the bassoons, tuba and harp, and later by one played by divided cellos.
 
In the next movement, Romeo at Juliet's before Parting, Romeo is in Juliet's bedroom just before dawn. They swear their love before Romeo departs, and Juliet contemplates their fate. In the Dance of the Antilles Girls, West Indian slaves dance at the wedding feast for Juliet and Paris. Paris brings pearls as a gift for his bride. No-one realizes that Juliet is feigning death.
 
Romeo at Juliet's Tomb is the final scene, featuring the mourners carrying the body of Juliet, who is not dead but only drugged. After the grieving Capulets leave, Romeo appears and takes the poison that will kill him before Juliet awakes.

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