Commentary
“Romeo and Juliet” seems to be the most popular story in Southern California this season. Both of San Diego’s major ballet companies, plus two regional SoCal opera companies, performed a version of this famous romance. I had the pleasure of seeing all of these productions, at least partially. The final of these was from City Ballet of San Diego, which was performed on May 6-7 in North San Diego County, at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. This was the last show of the company’s 30th Anniversary season.
There are a few different operas based on this story, but there is only one main ballet. Although considered part of the classical repertoire, it is a more modern ballet, with a score by 20th-century ballet composer Sergei Prokofiev instead of his 19th-century Russian predecessor, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The score was originally composed in 1935 and first performed in Czechoslovakia in 1938….