Romeo and Juliet

This fine production, starring Alessandra Ferri, Wayne Eagling, and their colleagues in The Royal Ballet, takes the choreography of Kenneth McMillan and the music of Prokoviev to create a magical ballet experience. Not yet on DVD (but hopefully will be in the near future), it was broadcast on TV and then released on laserdisc and video through the 1980s and 1990s.

Quite apart from the fact that Prokoviev's music suits the adaptation of the tragic play far more than Tchaikovsky's, the dancing from most of the players in this ballet is wonderful. Ferri is a marvellous Juliet, and indeed has played the role many times since - delicate, doll-like, and believable. Eagling makes a passionate Romeo, especially in the famed balcony scene (which has made it onto DVD in the pas-de-deux series), and in the more jokey sequences where he cavorts about outside the ball with his friends and pursues Juliet once inside.

A more substantial and satisfying production that the Nureyev/Fonteyn one from the 1960s, this 'Romeo and Juliet' should be held up as a mirror to all productions that have and will come after. I can't find a single thing to criticise about it.

As a lover of the ballet and of ballet(and of opera and classical music) in general, I sat down to watch this 1984 production from The Royal Ballet. What can I say? A sheer delight from start to finish for any ballet fan, and more. The scenery and costumes are indeed wondrous. The score from Prokoviev is nothing short of magnificent. And the choreography is clever and sensitive, with the balcony scene especially musically and choreographically undoubtedly in my mind one of the best scenes in any ballet. The story is beautiful, and the characters wonderful. Then there is the dancing, adeptly done by all involved. Alessandra Ferri and Wayne Eagling are a wonderfully delicate and passionate Juliet and Romeo, and Stephen Jeffries is a real standout as Romeo's friend Mercutio, those legs never fail to amaze me. To conclude, if you can find this production I recommend it highly, it is just beautiful in every regard. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This is a superb production, thanks to Kenneth Macmillan's choreography, first performed in the 1960s with the peerless pairing of Nureyev and Fonteyn. The "beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear" of this Royal Ballet performance is Alessandra Ferri's Juliet. She looks lighter than air, and her astonishing technique is matched by her acting skills; she is both gawky and elegant, sometimes from one moment to the next. How does dance reflect Shakespeare's verse, letting movement replace the spoken word? Surprisingly clearly; Romeo and Juliet's mirrored dance steps take the place of the sonnet they compose together, and the ease and grace with which Juliet dances with Romeo, contrasted with the stilted formality of her dance with Paris, says it all. And Romeo's dance with Juliet's inert body is both macabre and unbearably poignant. Prokofiev's music is a star, too. The screechy violins express the barely-concealed violence of the Capulet-Montague brawl, and the dissonant chords break into even the lovers' tender pas de deux. I wish this production were available on video or DVD; my taped-from-cable copy is dying.

Alessandra Ferri, now retired, was one of the great ballerinas of our time. She was 21 when she danced Juliet in this 1984 production with the Royal Ballet, and she was an extraordinarily convincing 14-year-old, both looking and acting the part. Her Romeo, Wayne Eagling, was a handsome young man and an excellent partner. But this performance is Ferri's most of all. Prokofiev's music and Kenneth MacMillan's choreography have never been better served. I've seen this Romeo and Juliet done by other ballet companies and by other excellent prima ballerinas. But I've never seen a Juliet who was more playful in the opening scene, more persuasive as a carefree child, more deeply and convincingly in love, more recalcitrant (after having married Romeo) in refusing her parents' demands that she marry Paris, more conflicted before she swallows the potion that will render her apparently lifeless, and more tragic when she awakes to find Romeo dead in the crypt. In addition, she really does seem lighter than air as she dances. It is an achievement lovingly recorded by the BBC and now available on DVD. The one advantage -- the only advantage -- of watching ballet on DVD is the closeups of the principals, and Ferri's face, as she passes through the events recorded in the ballet, is as sensitive to the moods as her body and her dancing. Wondrous!