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Romeo and Juliet - Sergei Prokoffiev

From his ballet of the same name, Prokoffiev extracted first two suites and later a third. Times have moved on since their extraction when each stood more convincingly on their own as concert pieces. For decades now they have rarely been heard in their original form on concert platforms across the world, possibly as a mirror of our more hedonistic, shorter attention span, instant gratification times.

I have chosen a selection that unusually leaves out non-narrative numbers such as 'Juliet the Young Girl', and 'Friar Lawrence', but instead focus on the action, leading the audience through the telling of the story through the music: Montagues and Capulets, Masks, Balcony Scene, Death of Tybalt, Romeo and Juliet Before Parting, and -spoiler alert- Romeo at Juliet's (fake N.B.) Grave.

I have also left out the (majority female) dance numbers, which serve at best only the ballet, and at worst, perpetuate the the male gaze, if only in one's mind's eye given the symphonic concert setting.

Regarding the music itself, it all begins innocently enough with a held horn octave, which quickly deteriorates into one of the most violent moments in music ever written, a terrifying scream of a chord. When it mercifully cuts out we realise that the strings have all the while been playing glowing, luscious harmony underneath, which had no chance of being heard while violence was having its day. Parallels with current affairs, and hence this music's continued relevance, are plain.

Another favourite moment is 'Romeo and Juliet Before Parting', a movement in three parts of seemingly of less immediate interest than, say, 'Masks' or 'Tybalt's Death'. But it is the moment where -in Prokoffiev's eyes- the young lovers shyly devise their dangerous escape plan, the music then leading into a rapturous episode where they get lost in their fantasy about a life together after elopement until the music morphs a final time into a chilling musical question mark: there’s a chance the plan might not work, and then what?

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