Last night, in the company of John and my Mum, I attended my first ever ballet: Romeo and Juliet at the Cliffs Pavilion, performed by the Russian State Ballet of Siberia. I always said that everyone should see a ballet and an opera at least once in your life - you may not like it but it's an experience. It was such a shame though, because the theatre was half empty and obviously lacked an atmosphere.
The costumes were bright and colourful, the dancing was good but some of the scenes in the first half left us baffled as to what was going on, for instance, which performers belonged to the Capulets and which to the Montagues. We had a bit of a giggle about it in the interval, particularly about the male dancer who appeared to be somewhat of a gay interest towards Romeo????!!! and also the dancer who looked like she was wearing a bagle on her head!!! The most moving part of the first half was undoubtedly when Romeo and Juliet fell in love and I must admit I did get swept away by the passion and beautiful dancing between the two of them. See - I'm an old romantic at heart! I was excited too, because Romeo and Juliet features my most favourite piece of classical music: Prokofiev's 'Montagues and Capulets'. I couldn't help moving my feet when the orchestra played that but John had to stop me because all the seats were joined together and so I was jerking everyone around me!
In the second half it was easier to follow the interpretation of the dancing; it was quite sombre in places as there were four tragedies in total and the image of death was everywhere. There was still what I call a funny part for me when the 'gay' guy came flying onto the stage wearing a large red bra and a flowing skirt. Then there was a fight over the bra and this lead to someone getting stabbed! Anyone reading this must think ' what a complete ignoramous' but I don't care!! Most people probably know how Romeo and Juliet ends so at least I understood that part! The end scene where there are both lying dead together with the image of their spirits still dancing in heaven was quite moving.
Sadly, with the lack of audience, the applause sounded half dead and I felt sorry for the performers. Hopefully they'll have a full house tonight.
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