Tamara Rojo on her present form must be the best Royal Ballet Juliet for a quarter century or more, since Gelsey Kirkland’s guest seasons. Every movement is so smooth and at the same time so full of meaning, while her feeling for the music is as perfect as her grasp of the drama.
For those who never saw Margot Fonteyn, this is the way she used to dance. And for this revival Rojo has a new Romeo - Carlos Acosta on equally fine form. He too shows their growing love and the happiness this brings is manifest in some exuberantly joyful solos. A great performance from the pair of them, jointly and singly. How absurd it seems that nine different casts, of very different standards, are announced for 15 shows, so that none of them gets more than two performances.
Among the supporting ensemble, Thiago Soares made a powerfully dark, angry Tybalt, a welcome reminder that this role was created for a dramatic dancer, not a mime. Also outstanding was David Drew, appearing unannounced as a substitute, who made Lord Capulet for once entirely credible as a father and led the famous knights’ dance with a rare grasp of its choreographic detail. Mikhail Agrest, a conductor from the St Petersburg Maryinsky, making his Royal Ballet debut, did his impressive best to enliven the heavy Prokofiev score. Thanks to him, one could try to overlook that many of the lesser roles do not live up to their original standards and that the corps de ballet have to contend with dances that are abysmally dull and repetitive.
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