Word: romeos
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Richard Easton's Romeo is unevenly effective. He has on previous occasions shown great skill with smaller roles, especially comic ones (his Puck last summer was tops). But Romeo marks his first traversal of a long, serious part for the Festival; and there is no reason to expect it to be definitive yet. He clearly has a fine Romeo within him, though. His diction is clear. He has no trouble making Romeo young enough--and young he must be: Romeo matures a little during the play's course, but he never does become a man. At present, however, Easton...
Still, the famous Balcony scene is wholly enchanting, both aurally and visually. It is night, of course; and for Romeo and Juliet, as for Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, night is blissful and day abhorrent. "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?" As Juliet turns on her bedroom light, the odylic moment is underlined by some light tracery on a flute. Juliet appears in a white nightgown, sinks on her knees, spreads her elbows on the balcony to support her head, and lets the light catch her soft, blond tresses--all girlishly, but never awkwardly. The rest...
...director Landau. Not for nothing does Mercutio share five letters with Mercury; but there is nothing mercurial about Smithers' performance. Mercutio is an airy, sparkling, zestful, witty chap; Smithers is none of these. Too bad, for the role is so rich that it bids fair to top that of Romeo himself--wherefore Shakespeare had to kill him off on two counts...
Both Smithers and Landau should be made to listen to the Queen Mab vocal scherzetto and orchestral scherzo from Berlioz' "dramatic symphony" Romeo and Juliet before Smithers sets foot on the Festival stage again. In fact, no director should essay this play until he has studied all of the Berlioz masterpiece, the only work based on Shakespeare's play that surpasses the original. Significantly, in his Sunday appraisal of this production, the New York Times' Brooks Atkinson was also moved to invoke the Berlioz work. Although he made some inaccurate statements about both Berlioz and his symphony, his basic point...
David Amram's incidental music is of uneven quality. Highly apt is the background for Romeo's Mantuan soliloquy: an unaccompanied English horn, suggested perhaps by the third act opening of Wagner's Tristan. At the opening performance the balance of the instruments in ensemble playing was awry, but this is easily remedied. George Balanchine's choreography is proper if not exceptional...