ABT – Romeo and Juliet – Cornejo & Reyes

Wednesday night was the best Romeo and Juliet that Haglund
has seen since Ferri and Bocca retired.  Xiomara Reyes and Herman Cornejo were
absolutely convincing as the star-crossed lovers.  Not only that, but the entire
cast took the intensity up a notch.  How unfair that these two remarkable
artists do not get a second performance this week.

 

There was an honesty in Romeo's and Juliet's love last
evening that has been absent and much missed for a few years.  Cornejo, besides
dancing superbly – as it now goes without saying – displayed a wonderful
combination of scrappiness and tenderness.  Reyes was every inch the young girl
who was at once innocent but also ready to leap into love and bed with Romeo. 
The emotional intensity of their pas de deux was driven in no small way by
Reyes' theatrical mastery.  She engaged Cornejo with every step and he couldn't
help but respond perfectly. 

 

Haglund was mightily impressed with the smoothness of the
partnering in the pas de deuxs.  There were no meaningful glitches that he could
see, and Cornejo had no problem pressing Reyes over his head whether he was
standing or kneeling.  Nor did the partnering look careful or calculated; it
just looked natural.

 

Carlos Lopez had a fantastic evening as Mercutio!  His
dancing was especially strong in his solos – turns were well balanced with very
good speed, legwork was clean, footwork was clear, and his own acting was on
spot.  Daniil Simkin as Benvolio did reasonably well.  He certainly looked the
part of a youthful troublemaker.  However, he had some problems with accents. 
When Lopez and Cornejo were firing off steps with the accents into the floor,
Simkin sometimes accented an overly large movement into the air.  So, it looked
like the three of them were off sometimes.  Also, Simkin has enormous
flexibility that isn't always appropriate to utilize in the Benvolio context. 
Grand battements a la seconde to the ear are just a bit too ballerina-ish for
Benvolio.  Same with trying to hold the arabesque overly-long.  It's pretty, but
not right for the role.

 

The Mandolin guys were again fantastic.  It was very
difficult not to continually follow Joe Gorak in this group.  He is simply the
most gorgeous combination of feet, legs, elevation, arabesque and smile to come
along since we all first spotted Hallberg nearly a decade ago.  We have so much
to look forward to with this young man, so much.

 

Sascha Radetsky and Gennadi Saveliev switched parts this
evening.  Radetsky was Tybalt and Saveliev was Paris.  Radetsky gave a very
powerful and detailed portrayal.  More than any other Tybalt, he made it crystal
clear that when he rammed his sword through Mercutio, it was an accident.  He
gave one look of regret that lasted about a half of a nanosecond and then
watched with satisfaction as Mercutio danced to his death.  His fencing with
Mercutio and Romeo was aggressive and always looked spontaneous as opposed to
choreographed.

 

Saveliev's Paris had a heart.  It appeared that he truly
wanted Juliet to accept him and love him instead of just acting like he was
entitled to her. 

 

Stella Abrera and Victor Barbee were bigger than life as
Lady and Lord Capulet.  These were huge performances that contributed mightily
to drama.  Everyone continues to talk about Stella – as in, why don't we see more of her and why isn't she a principal?

 

Alexei Agoudine gave convincing performances as Escalus
and Friar Laurence.  The best Escalus Haglund can remember ever seeing was Kirk
Peterson whose face literally reddened with anger at the quarrelling families. 
He was not someone who you disobeyed once he said to stop fighting.

 

The harlots – Misty Copeland, Kristi Boone and Anne
Milewski – were exceptionally earthy – in a very good way.  Romeo's little dance with Harlot Misty
where she realizes that he's not going to come her way was very
touching.

 

One of the great pleasures of this production are the
gorgeous Nicholas Georgiadis scenery and costumes.  The rich variant shades of brown,
red, yellow and green used throughout are a pleasing and dramatic palette – and a lot more artistically meaningful than that awful Crayola mish-mash in
Sleeping Beauty.

Haglund has only seen the Monday and Wednesday evening
Romeo and Juliet performances thus far.  Where Monday night's emotional output might be
equated with "scars that never felt a  wound"  [Act II, Scene II], Wednesday night's
tore the heart out of the audience.  A great job from everyone.  Haglund bestows
this sterling silver Pump Bump Award on Herman Cornejo and Xiomara Reyes for revitalizing this drama
and returning a good amount of the magic to it: