Coup de théâtre
The Bolshoi's big new departure
THE word “bolshoi” in Russian means big, but that adjective can't begin to describe the jolt that must have rocked audiences and artists alike at the world's largest ballet company when their new “Romeo and Juliet” opened in Moscow last December. Here, set to one of the most choreographed scores of the past century, a Prokofiev masterwork that has always occupied a special place in Russian hearts, was a ballet staged by—wait for it—a theatre director. And, in British Declan Donnellan, a western one at that.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Coup de théâtre”
From the July 31st 2004 edition
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