Performance(s)
Venue and date:
National Theatre of Pécs
2023. 05. 31., 19:00
Company:
Ballet Company of the Croatian National Theatre Ivana pl. Zajca, Rijeka
Fotó: Tutek-Hajnal Fanni
Dance

Romeo and Juliet

Performance(s)
Venue and date:
National Theatre of Pécs
2023. 05. 31., 19:00
Company:
Ballet Company of the Croatian National Theatre Ivana pl. Zajca, Rijeka
Author:
Jiří Bubeníček - Nadina Cojocaru
Choreographer:
Jiří Bubeníček
Stage designer: 
Aleksandra Ana Buković
Costume designer: 
Nadina Cojocaru
Dramaturge: 
Jiří Bubeníček
Composer: 
Sergei Prokofiev
Synopsis

Romeo and Juliet perfectly capture the rush of being in love and the desire to make that feeling last forever despite daunting circumstances. Although the story is often thought to be about love and it’s power, actually love is included in only a few fragile moments of satisfaction – making love duets that much sweeter and more precious. The theme of the play are violence and chaos, confusion and death, especially in the context of life’s fragile beauty juxtaposed to the needlessness of death amongst youth.

The story teaches one of letting old family wounds go, and not letting your emotions rule your life. The Montague and the Capulets have let an old family rivalry take away the future of their own children. It is a narrative that expresses a historical conflict between old forms of identity and new modes of desire, between authority and freedom, between parental will and romantic individualism.

Cast
Juliet - Maria Matarranz de las Heras
Romeo - Michele Pastorini
Capulet - Ali Tabbouch
Lady Capulet - Marta Voinea Čavrak
Nurse - Marta Kanazir Bagadur
Tybalt - Antoine Salle
Paris - Jody Bet
Lady Montague - Tea Rušin
Montague - Alejandro Polo
Mercutio - Valentin Chou
Benvolio - Leonardo De Santis
People of Montague - Soyoka Iwata / Milica Mučibabić
People of Capulet - Ksenija Krutova / Anna Zardi / Maria del Mar Hernandez
Friar Laurence - Janne Boere
Prince Escalus - Andrei Köteles
Two actors - Ivna Bruck / Mario Jovev
Infos
Runtime: 120 min
Acts: 2
Age limit: 10
The Director

Jiří, together with his twin brother Otto, graduated from the Prague Dance Conservatory. As one of the winners of the award at the Prix de Lausanne (1992) he was granted a place in John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet, where he became a Principal dancer in 1997. Jiří did not only perform all principal male roles in Neumeier’s performances, he received a special honour – the role of Vaslav Nijinsky in the ballet Nijinsky, created by the legendary maestro especially for him. Among his other roles, for instance that of Arman in Neumeier’s La Dame aux Camélias, was stunning enough to get him an invitation to dance alongside with Aurelie Dupont and Agnes Letestu in Opera de Paris.

In 2006 Bubeníček joined Semperoper Dresden Ballet as a Principal dancer. However, coming from the family of touring circus acrobats, he never stayed for too long in the same place. Rather, he collaborated with the ballet companies in New York, Zurich, Vienna, Munchen, Stockholm and Beijing.

In 1999 Jiří Bubeníček started working on independent productions and choreographing. Amongst his most successful works are Unerreichbare Orte for Hamburg Ballet (2005), Le Souffle de l’Esprit for Zurich Ballet (2007) that was also staged for the Vienna Ballet, Toccata for New York City Ballet (2009). More recently he has created highly acclaimed works for the Slovenian National Theatre in Ljubljana (Doctor Zhivago 2016), the Royal Ballet of New Zeland (Piano – the Ballet, 2018), ballet of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb (Metropolis, 2018) Royal Sweedish Ballet (The Trial, 2019), ballet of Teatro dell’Opera Roma (Carmen, 2019), Nuovo Balletto di Toscana (Cinderella, 2019), ballet of the La Scala Milan (Canon in D-major, 2021).

During his career, Jiří was awarded many prizes for both dancing and choreographing. Among most notable ones are Prix de Lausane (Prix Especes, 1992), Benois de la Danse (Moskow 2002), Audience Award at the 18th International Competition for Choreographers Hannover for Prisoners of Feelings in 2004., Danza & Danza Prize 2009, Best Duet Prize at St Petersburg Dance Open, Mary Wigman Prize 2013. He was also one of the finalists in the Competition for choreographers Prix Dom Perignon (in 1991 and 2001), and had been voted the best male dancer in Europe by Dance for You magazine in 2014 and Dance Europe magazine in 2015.

Inviting Theater
Ballet Pécs
Awards and prizes
Audience Award ‘Boris Papandopulo’ (2022) for the best new ballet production in the season 2021/22