The musical "Romeo and Juliet": content, video, interesting facts, history

The musical "Romeo and Juliet"

"There is no sadder story in the world ..." - William Shakespeare summarized one of the best literary tragedies. Several centuries later, the creators of the musical "Romeo and Juliet" would not agree. The French interpretation of the British play spread all over the world and brought them great fame and millions of fees. And for many performers, she was also a good start to her vocal career.

Summary of the musical "Romeo and Juliet" and a lot of interesting facts about this piece read on our page.

Summary

The prince of Verona represents the main actors and talks about the many years of enmity between Montecchi and Capuleti. In her bedroom, Juliet dreams of love, while her father is negotiating a marriage with Paris.

In the house of Capulet a ball is planned, and Romeo's friends persuade him to go there incognito. The young man has bad feelings about him, but he appears in the house of his enemies. At the ball, Romeo and Juliet fall in love with each other, but Tybalt exposes Romeo, and Juliet finds out that Montagca has become her chosen one.

Romeo comes to Juliet under the balcony, and they open up their feelings to each other. The young man agrees with his brother Lorenzo about the secret wedding. He agrees to do it for the sake of love. Romeo sends the news of this to her lover through the Nurse, they are crowned under the cover of night.

Friends of Romeo, having learned that he married the Capulet, declare him a traitor. Tybalt eager for revenge and is looking for Romeo, but finds Mercutio, with whom he started a conflict. A weapon is used, and Tybalt mortally wounds the opponent. Romeo loses his head from grief and thrusts a knife into the killer.

In both Veronese families mourning, the Prince decides to send Romeo from Verona to appease the Capulets, who are seeking revenge. Romeo spends the night before quoting with Juliet, and the next morning her parents announce that tomorrow she will be the wife of Paris.

Juliet turns for help to her brother Lorenzo, who gives her a sleepy tincture. She drinks it and does not wake up in the morning. The nurse, finding her immovable, decides that she is dead. Brother Lorenzo tells Romeo in a letter about a plan that they have conceived, but Benvolio comes to a friend earlier and talks about the death of Juliet. Shocked, Romeo sees his beloved in a family crypt and takes the kiss of Death. Juliet wakes up and with horror discovers the dead Romeo. In desperation, she stabs him with a dagger. Brother Lorenzo finds them. He first hesitated in his faith, seeing such a tragic injustice. Over the bodies of their children, Montagues and Capulets decide to reconcile.

A photo:

Interesting Facts

• The original version of the musical is called "Romeo and Juliet: From Hate to Love." Version 2010 - "Romeo and Juliet, children of Verona".
• Since the role of Death is absent in many productions, Romeo’s death is solved differently: he drinks poison, stabs him with a dagger, and even hangs himself in the Hungarian version.

• A small party of the Poet is also often excluded from the productions.
• In the resumption of 2010, the role of Juliet was played by Joy Ester - the actual spouse of the performer of the role of Romeo Damien Sarg. It is interesting that when Sarg acted as Phoebe in the duplicate composition of the musical "Notre Dame de Paris", he was tied by a personal relationship with Helene Segara - Esmeralda.
• For the performance of 2010, Presgurvik wrote 6 new numbers: the new version of "Tu dois te marier" (Lady Capuleti's aria), Tybalt (Tybalt's aria), "A la vie, a la mort" (Benvolio and Mercucio duet), "Verone II "(Prince's aria)," Avoir 20 ans "(final number) and" On prie "(Romeo and Juliet duet). The last two songs were also published on singles.
• Over the past years, the performances of "Romeo and Juliet" were visited by 2 million viewers in France and 5 million around the world. The CD and DVD versions of the musical have sold 14 million copies.

• Both French versions of the musical, 2001 and 2010, were released on DVD. There is also a recording of an Italian performance, held in 2014 under the open sky at Arena di Verona.
• In 2003, Presgurik released the musical "Gone With the Wind", where the role of Scarlett O'Hara was performed by his daughter, Laura. The performance went on for three months on the stage of the Paris Palace of Sport, but, despite successful melodies, did not reflect in due measure the spirit of the cult novel M. Mitchell, turned out to be somewhat more lightweight than the original source, and did not gain fame for Romeo and Juliet.
• Several large-scale Asian tours of the musical speak of its unconditional popularity in these countries. In 2018, in the next tour, viewers will again see Romeo Damien Sarg playing.
• In the Russian production one of the performers of the role of Death was Nikolai Tsiskaridze, People’s Artist of Russia. His voice also sounds in the prologue.

Best numbers

"Les Rois du monde" ("Kings of night Verona"). The dynamic trio of Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio. The most popular composition of the musical, which became known in many countries before the start of productions. In the Russian version performed by A. Alexandrin, S. Lee, A. Postolenko.

"Les Rois du monde" (listen)

"Aimer" ("Blessing" or "Happiness"). This wonderful melody set the tone for the whole musical, since it was her J. Presgurvik who wrote the very first.

"Aimer" (listen)

"Avoir une fille" ("Father and daughter"). The most piercing aria of the musical. Father's anxiety for her daughter, regret about how quickly she became an adult, and in her heart he was given not a place as big as before. This aria performed by A. Marakulin was chosen for the presentation of the Russian version of "Romeo and Juliet."

"Avoir une fille" (listen)

History of creation and productions

French musician Gerard Presgurvik was already well past 40, when he single-handedly wrote the musical Romeo and Juliet. The composer’s wife submitted the idea, and Notre Dame de Paris laid the way to recognition. York But if in the case of Notre-Dame de Paris, the French used their classic plot, then Presgurvik was just lucky that the superpopular story of young lovers before him did not attract the attention of any of the masters of British musical theater. Work on the music was completed in 1999. The composer also wrote all the verses and conversational passages himself, relying on the Shakespearean text, but presenting his view on the events of the tragedy. Several songs ("Aimer", "Les Rois du monde") were recorded and released as singles, becoming world hits before the release of the stage version.

January 19, 2001 at the Palace of Congresses held its premiere. The director and choreographer of the performance was the famous French ballet master Reda. Damien Sarg (Romeo) and Cecilia Kara (Juliet) performed in the title games. Sarg was known to the public because he performed the roles of Gringoire and Phoebe in the musical "Notre Dame de Paris". Presgurvik, who also saw these works, did not imagine any other Romeo. Cecilia Cara was a young girl from Cannes, at the age of 14 who made herself known in a television vocal competition, and in 16 she was brilliantly auditioned for the role of Juliet. In Paris and on tour in the cities of France, the play went for almost 2 years. The musical was translated into more than 10 languages, for performances in some countries, fundamental changes were made to the score.

The first foreign version appeared already in 2002 - it was the Canadian French version. In the autumn of the same year, the Belgian version in Flemish and English was released. Londoners were not particularly impressed with the musical, and after 3.5 months of rental it closed. But in the Budapest theater of the operetta "Romeo and Juliet" became long-livers - the performance was staged in 2004 and for 13 years has not left the stage. True, the production of Hungarians differs significantly from the original, its director, Kero (MG Kerenyi), the famous European master of musical theater, presented his concept of the musical, for which even new numbers were created.

For 2 years, from 2004 to 2006, Romeo and Juliet were performed on the stage of the Moscow Operetta Theater by the creative forces of the team of producer E. Gechmen-Valdek. The French production with some notes was completely transferred to Russia. The Russian text was written by N. Olev. A. Alexandrin, E. Shulzhevsky (Romeo), S. Nizharadze, E. Ryabtseva (Juliet) were employed in the main parties. In the next few years, the musical was performed in various cities of Russia in a tour version.

Since 2005, for one and a half years, the musical was in Vienna, it was the only production with a live orchestra. In 2007, a large-scale Asian tour was undertaken, in which the French troupe visited South Korea and Taiwan. In 2008, the Mexican production opened, in 2009 - the Romanian (directed by Kero). In 2012, the second Asian tour of China and Japan took place. In addition, the musical was staged in Mongolia, Italy, Israel, Slovakia, and the USA.

By the decade of the first production in 2010, the play returned to Paris again. The musical has undergone significant processing. J. Presgurvik combined in the updated score the original version with a lot of changes created over the years of the touring and foreign versions. Thus, the duet of Lady Capulet and the Warden of the Family "Tu dois te marier" changed its humorous mood, becoming a tragic monologue of Juliet's mother. Tybalt's party was expanded, he received another aria, like Mercutio, and the role of Paris, by contrast, lost its vocals. A new final number "Avoir 20 ans" was written. Scenography and costumes also received a new design. The actors of the first production - Damien Sarg (Romeo), Tom Ross (Tybalt), Frederick Charte (brother Lorenzo in 2010, Prince - in 2001), Arieh Ita (Count Capuleti in 2010, doubler of brother Lorenzo and Prince in 2001 ).

"Romeo and Juliet" is one of the few musicals that have had almost uninterrupted scenic life on three continents of the world for 17 years and the undying interest of the public. This is facilitated by the famous plot, a lot of musical hits, dynamic action, successful performance and a team of high-class performers gushing with creative energy.