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50th Anniversary of MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet

ByGramilano 30 July 20157 July 2024 Reading Time: 2 minutes

Evgenia Obraztsova, Genesia Rosato, Steven McRae in Romeo and Juliet, The Royal Ballet © ROH-Johan Persson, 2013

The Royal Ballet 2015/16 Season opens this September with the return of Kenneth MacMillan‘s landmark Romeo and Juliet, celebrating 50 years since its première at the Royal Opera House in 1965. It will be relayed live to cinemas on Tuesday 22 September 2015.

Originally created on Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable, it was, of course, Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev who danced the 1965 première, famously receiving 43 curtain calls and propelling the partnership to legendary heights.

Over the past 50 years there have been a number of legendary partnerships dancing the lead roles; Anthony Dowell and Antoinette Sibley, Jonathan Cope with Sylvie Guillem and Darcey Bussell, Alessandra Ferri and Wayne Eagling, and more recently Carlos Acosta with Tamara Rojo. This season’s exciting role débuts include Matthew Golding, Nehemiah Kish and Vadim Muntagirov as Romeo. Francesca Hayward, who was recently promoted to First Soloist, will début as Juliet. The run will also feature and exciting pairing of young dancers when Soloist Yasmine Naghdi will dance opposite First Artist Matthew Ball in his début as Romeo. Iana Salenko returns to dance the role of Juliet for the first time, opposite Steven McRae. Full casting and booking here.

Romeo and Juliet will be screened as part of the Royal Opera House Live Cinema Season 2015/16 on Tuesday 22 September and will also be relayed live to BP Big Screens across the UK on Tuesday 22 September.

Gramilano

Graham Spicer, aka 'Gramilano', is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.