"Romeo and Juliet" - ice show in Moscow. Reviews, cast and features

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Any ambitious director strives to put on a play with original content. The theater stage saw numerous productions of the story that “there is no sadder thing in the world,” so Ilya Averbukh had no idea to simply transfer the play to the ice arena. The ice performance "Romeo and Juliet" in his production is an unexpected look at this tragic story. Averbukh makes an attempt to convey to the viewer his understanding of this beautiful, tender and eternal theme of love, casting doubt on the finale of the play.

Averbukh's thoughts on the ice show

Ilya Averbukh shared in his interviews how the ice show "Romeo and Juliet" (on skates) was created. The picture of the performance, which was always in his head, he saw after the excellent rental of the ice show "Carmen". He even saw the performers of the main roles for the future performance. Ilya understoodthat sooner or later a scenario will be created that will captivate. And when everything worked out, he shared his thoughts with colleagues and skaters who participated in ice shows.

According to Ilya Averbukh, Shakespeare's plot is staged for so long, because it is crystal clear and the dramaturgy is clearly built in it. You just need to see it and read this work in your own way. His vision is not a "cover version" of ballet performances, but practically a reprint and some rethinking of the original Shakespearean work. We can say that his plot is just the starting point of Averbukh's fantasy.

Lorenzo in the foreground

It's hard to write a script for an ice story, taking the whole story. That is why Averbukh's ice show "Romeo and Juliet" received its interpretation. For example, the image of Lorenzo, brilliantly performed by Alexei Tikhonov, is secondary in Shakespeare, but Ilya brought him to the fore. The whole performance begins with the history of his soul-searching. Lorenzo blames himself that his plan to unite two loving hearts was not well thought out, and considers himself indirectly responsible for their death. He agreed to help Romeo and Juliet only because he remembers his beloved. Lorenzo (Aleksey Tikhonov) not only speaks, but also rides, reads poetry. He's just amazing.

Additional character

The second accent in the ice show "Romeo and Juliet" Ilya Averbukh makeson an imaginary curse that sounded from the lips of Mercutio. Ilya introduces a new character into the performance, which is absent in the original work. A real, brightly illuminated image of the Plague appears on the ice, performed by Oksana Domnina. It is the Plague - a woman in red, the embodiment of evil and temptation - that makes Tyb alt lose his mind, and interferes with the implementation of Lorenzo's plan to help. Romeo takes poison from her hands.

Cast Casting

Ilya is a good organizer, producer and director. He finds his own image for everyone, which suits well. Ilya Averbukh has known many skaters for a number of years and understands which images are easier for them to try on and play them. Therefore, the actors he selected for the play "Romeo and Juliet" were actually in their places and were woven into the outline of the performance. The show involved more than 100 people. Among them are eminent figure skaters of world figure skating who have completed sports performances, ice ballet dancers, dancers, singers of famous musicals, musicians, as well as technical and creative staff of the project.

Famous Olympians in the play

Skaters - champions of the Olympic Games of different years take part in the performance. The roles of Romeo and Juliet are perfectly performed by Marinin and Totmyanina, who were a couple in figure skating and brought a gold medal from Turin.

It was for these two main characters that Averbukh had the most questions. It was Tatyana who could show the images of such young people who dance, do not skate, but live every movement on the ice.and Maxim. Each fell into his own character. The families of figure skaters brilliantly act as families in the performance: Albena Denkova and Maxim Stavinsky as the Montecchi family; Marina Drobyazko and Povelas Vaganes as the Capulet family.

Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Maxaim Trankov were invited to play the roles of the princely family of Verona. Choosing a role for Alexei Yagudin, Averbukh understood that it would be difficult for Alexei to play Romeo, but Mercutio is his character. Roman Kostomarov plays the role of Tyb alt in the ice performance "Romeo and Juliet". Patrice is played by Olympic champion Ilya Kulik.

Scenery for the play

Medieval-style set was prepared for a fully written script. A great merit in their preparation belongs to the decorator Nina Kobiashvili. The main accents in I. Averbukh's grandiose ice musical "Romeo and Juliet" are made on certain scenery compositions. This is both a stained glass window, which is very characteristic of cathedrals, and a staircase that separates the warring families and at the same time serves as a link. Viewers see that she is depicted as a dagger.

The balcony with a window to Juliet's room is the decoration of the Capulet's house, and the stage for singers and musicians, located on the opposite side, is the Montecchi's house. The monumental organ is at the center of this whole composition.

Music in the ice show

Ilya Averbukh, in his interview for the press, told how difficult it was to combine the music of different composers in the performance so as not to turn musical compositions intothe vinaigrette. During sports competitions, many skaters used musical compositions by Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky in their programs.

Short variations of sports programs are very in tune with the ice. And such works, says Ilya, give a good foothold for their own improvisation, their own vision.

For several years, Ilya Averbukh has been collaborating with Roman Ignatiev, whose music is heard in Russian musicals. Joint work in the performances "City Lights" and "Carmen" continued in work on the ice show. In the play "Romeo and Juliet" Prokofiev's music sounds. In the version of the show, it sounds during the dance performance of Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov as a visit to the Prince of Verona, who calls everyone to a truce. The performance contains a lot of classical music by Bach, as well as musical compositions by Roman Ignatiev. It's just that one piece of music complements another. In general, Ilya Averbukh believes, everything worked out.

Working behind the scenes

In the performance, the second plan, located behind the scenes, plays a huge role. The employees of the Ice Palace and the technical staff of the ice show must work in sync. In order for the performance to sparkle with bright fantastic colors, you need to correctly set the scenes, sound and light, which play an important role in such a special effect as the interweaving of fire and rain, unexpectedly spilling onto ice.

The correct operation of the scenery and the movement of ice ballet dancers creates the atmosphere of the stage. For all this, it is necessary to hone every movement of allparticipants of this grandiose show during rehearsals. The role of costumers is also important, who prepared all the necessary costumes and helped them change along the way, not only for the skaters, but also for the singers.

Features of the show "Romeo and Juliet"

In the new ice show, Ilya Averbukh used interesting tricks that had not been seen before in his productions. What are the special effects, about which enchanted viewers write about in their reviews of the Romeo and Juliet ice show (in Moscow) on social networks.

Fire, rain and smoke accompany the performances of the heroes of the play. Also, unique circus performances and spectacular elements of a fire show were introduced into the performance, figured acrobatics on ice and real fencing on skates played with unexpected colors. Moreover, fencing is not just waving swords. Olympic champions Alexei Yagudin and Roman Kostomarov were trained by Dmitry Ivanov, a fencing teacher at GITIS. This is not an easy craft, Roman said in an interview, and he had to take the time to learn the basic combinations. It is very difficult to fence while skating, and be careful not to actually injure your "enemy" with a sharp sword. Everything had to look professional.

The scenery of a large organ installed on the stage and the reproduced musical melody created the effect of a real organ for the audience, since the technique of simultaneous sounding of a phonogram and an orchestra was used. To an interesting technique of "story within a story"resorted to Ilya Averbukh when he introduced Lorenzo into the script as the main narrator of the story.

First run of the play

The premiere of the play "Romeo and Juliet" took place on the main arena of the Olympic Park of the Sochi Ice Palace "Iceberg". Figure skaters came here for a long tour with a new project by Ilya Averbukh. The tour lasted three months. It is a great pleasure not only to be present at the amazing ice show, where everything shines and sparkles either from special effects, or from a large number of star duets on the ice of the Ice Palace, but also reading reviews about I. Averbukh's ice performance "Romeo and Juliet".

Spectators note the charm of figure skaters, familiar to many since their participation in the Olympics, who went out in the lobby just to chat and find out the opinion of the audience about their performance. In the reviews of the performance, one can find admiration for the beautiful costumes and chic scenery. Connoisseurs of musical works noted the wonderful sound of music, they were pleased with the live performance and, of course, conquered the skill of the skaters. Literally in the air felt an amazing spiritual atmosphere. The result of the Sochi performances was fantastic. The audience did not leave the auditorium for a long time, applauding the skaters for the pleasure delivered at the ice show.

Reviews

The ice show "Romeo and Juliet" in Moscow began in October 2017 at the small sports arena in Luzhniki. The audience was familiar with ice shows and dances in"Ice Age", many saw the previous productions of Ilya Averbukh "City Lights" and "Carmen", so they were looking forward to something extraordinary. And their expectations were justified. Usually people react differently to a particular performance, performance or exhibition. Here, everyone unanimously praises Averbukh and his offspring. Everything is perfect: the music, the singing, the staging, and the fabulous skating of figure skating stars.

Spectators in Moscow in their reviews of the ice show "Romeo and Juliet" highlight the bewitching dance of the Plague (Oksana Domnina), personifying both the demon and death, was impressed by the insertion of aerial gymnasts into the show.

The audience also notes such an important element as the musical accompaniment of the entire show. The music was so perfectly matched to each character that it seemed that it was written just for him. According to the audience, the ice show of Ilya Averbukh "Romeo and Juliet" is currently the best thing that can be shown on ice, the audience who attended the performance write on social networks. There are many solo numbers in the performance, and each of them is beautiful in its own way.

Ilya Averbukh's plans

As mentioned above, this is the third performance by Ilya Averbukh. The first was "City Lights", which brought success and fell in love with the viewer. After 6 years, the ice show "Carmen" was staged, which the audience of many cities of Russia got acquainted with. At present, says Ilya Averbukh, negotiations are underway on the possibility of takingVerona ice show "Romeo and Juliet", according to reviews in Moscow, very popular with the public. This project just needs to be taken to the homeland of the Montagues and the Capulets.

In St. Petersburg, the skaters did not please the audience for long - from November 16 to 19, but, as the director assured, the show will arrive in St. Petersburg in the summer of 2018. To the questions that arise about competition in this niche, Ilya confidently answers that at the moment he does not see obvious competitors. It's just that each show works in its own niche, and you need to do your job well so that the audience has a desire to come to your productions.