Sergei Prokofiev’s powerful score meets Fabrizio Monteverde’s distinctive choreographic vision in Romeo and Juliet, performed by Balletto di Roma. A ballet in two acts freely inspired by Shakespeare’s tragedy, Monteverde’s production moves beyond the familiar fairy-tale image of Verona, creating a darker and more restless world shaped by conflict, social constraints, and the desire for freedom.

In this interpretation, Verona becomes an austere and dusty Southern landscape emerging from the aftermath of war and standing on the threshold of revolution. The remains of a devastated world form the backdrop to the story of two young people whose love challenges the rules and divisions imposed around them. Giulietta becomes not only the heroine of a tragic romance, but also a young woman struggling against an oppressive social order and seeking a life beyond the boundaries defined for her.

Monteverde’s choreography gives particular emphasis to the emotional intensity of Shakespeare’s characters and to the physical language of Prokofiev’s music. Powerful ensemble scenes contrast with intimate encounters between Giulietta and Romeo, while the austere setting reinforces the sense of a society marked by conflict yet capable of imagining renewal.

Performed by Balletto di Roma, one of Italy’s leading contemporary ballet companies, Romeo and Juliet offers a fresh perspective on one of the most enduring love stories in Western culture. The combination of Prokofiev’s dramatic music, Monteverde’s expressive choreography, and a visually striking interpretation makes this performance a compelling choice for an evening of theatre and dance at Teatro Regio di Parma.

In 1938, the Kirov Theater agreed to stage Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. Lavrovsky and Prokofiev struggled for a period over the score and libretto, Lavrovsky eventually persuading the composer to add variations for Romeo and Juliet as well as some other incidental numbers. The ballet premiered on January 11, 1940. It featured sets by Pyotr Vilyams and starred Galina Ulanova in the role of Juliet and Konstantin Sergeyev in the role of Romeo. Lavrovsky's production is widely recognized as one of the greatest examples of the drambalet genre in Soviet Theater. Lavrovsky's choreography for the ballet is highly dramatic and largely realistic, closely hewing to the motions taken by stage actors and mostly eschewing traditional ballet divertissements.

The choreographer made a meticulous study of Veronese archives, medieval novels and descriptions of early dances. For his principal expressive means he chose dramatically vivid pantomime dance. Swearing allegiance to the spirit of Shakespeare, Lavrovsky demanded the removal of all radical elements from the libretto in addition to expanding several parts and augmenting the orchestration. Prokofiev resisted the changes even after the premiere.
The production was designed by Pyotr Williams, one of the finest theatre designers of the age. Williams’ Italy arbitrarily combined heterogeneous elements of the Renaissance: on the squares of Verona there was the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore and in the costume sketches one could find traces of portraits by Botticelli and Cranach the Elder. Verona literally moved to the expanses of Leningrad: many columnists noted the restrained and not remotely southern flavour of the production.