I was so excited to finally get a chance to see this show, since I’d been a fan for a long time. And though I certainly didn’t think Moscow would be the first place I saw it, there was no disappointment in that either. The Operetta Theatre is a gorgeous theatre, and even though I was up in the 3rd or 4th balcony, it was great just to be there.
 The Moscow Operetta Theatre |
Overall the production is VERY similar to the French production as seen on the DVD. The costumes, choreography, etc, were nearly identical – I don’t know if they were exactly the same, but at the very least they were greatly influenced by the originals. The only thing I didn’t remember from the DVD was the projections during some scenes, although maybe I just blocked them out. The ones during “Et voilà qu’elle aime” were pretty cheesy! The sets consisted primarily of two spiral staircases leading to an upper level, all of which was movable. They were not the same as the French sets, but again, very close in concept.
In terms of content, it was pretty close to being the whole show. The songs “La Folie”, “Pourquoi?”, “Le Poete”, and “Par Amour” were cut. There was no Poet, and Death was played by a man. But “J’ai Peur” was there, which was my main concern! The translations generally seemed to flow pretty well, though of course I can’t comment on the accuracy of them. “L’amour heureux” was the only song which didn’t seem to have the right rhythm – any Russians out there care to comment about the translation for that one?
The cast was overall very good – Romeo and Juliet were both quite nice, I liked the mothers a lot, and the nurse was okay, as was Tybalt. The Prince seemed to have his own fan club there, he got a lot of applause for everything he did. 🙂 The crowd response in general was pretty enthusiastic! Oh, and I have a crush now on one of the Dmitriis in the chorus. 😉
Seeing the show on stage for the first time, I actually thought the second act dragged a bit – by the time Romeo and Juliet were each singing their dying songs, I was ready for them to just die already. 😉 However, I loved the encores of “L’amour heureux” and “Les Rois du Monde” at the end – I had thought that was something they just did for the DVD, I didn’t realize it was part of the show. I sang along in French, since I don’t know the Russian words, and leaving with “Les Rois du Monde” is definitely a more upbeat ending for the evening!
(My apologies for any mistakes in the transliteration!)
| Romeo | ANDREI ALEKSANDRIN |
| Julietta | SOFIA NIJARADZE |
| Benvolio | SERGEI LI |
| Mercutio | STAS BELYAEV |
| Graf Capuletti | ALEKSANDER MARAKULIN |
Lady Capuletti |
ANASTASIA SAPOZHINKOVA |
| Prince | ANDREI BELYAVSKY |
| Lady Montague | KARINA OVSEPIN |
| Nurse | NATALIA TRIKHLEB |
| Friar Laurence | ANTON ARTSEV |
| Tybalt | KONSTANTIN KABANOV |
| Paris | MOHAMED ABDUL FATTAKH |
| Death | ALEKSANDER BABENKO |
| Montagues | ANNA PYBALBCHENKO SVETLANA ISAEVA ALEKSEI KARPENKO OLESYA STUCHENKO PAVEL IVLEV SERGEI KURCHENKOV MARIA KOVALEVSKAYA ALEKSEI DOROSHEV ZALINA DZUTSEVA DMITRII BUNIN NATASHA ZAKHROVA VLAD NUNES-ROMERO KARINA SEDOVA ANTON VARFOLOMEER ANNA SAFRONOVA SERGEI SHESTEPEROV |
| Capulets | IRINA MOROZOVA TIMOFEI TCHERNYSHEV MARINA TSRAMOVA ALEKSEI POPOV IRINA MANUYLOVA IVAN BELBKOV VALERIA MOKRUSHINA ALEKSANDER ISAKOV VIKTORIA BOGOMAZOVA ALEKSEI DEGTYAREV NATALIA TERECHOVA ALEKSANDER MALAFEEV YULIA KASHKONA DMITRII LOTKOV |