Romeo & Juliet (1994)
In 1994, San Francisco Ballet premiered Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet, which will be returning to the War Memorial Opera House to close out the 2020 SF Ballet season this May. This production was recorded and broadcast nationwide in cinemas as part of the first Lincoln Center at the Movies series, Great American Dance. The production, recorded in 2015, featured Maria Kochetkova and Davit Karapetyan in the title roles, Pascal Molat as Mercutio, Luke Ingham as Tybalt, and Jim Sohm as Friar Laurence, and was shown in cinemas on May 12, 13, and 15, 2018. This ballet would turn out to be the final collaboration between Tomasson and Worsaae, and the latter's final production design, as Worsaae passed away a few months after the premiere of Romeo & Juliet.
Tomasson’s collaboration with Worsaae began shortly after Tomasson first saw Worsaee’s work for the famed Tivoli Pantomime Theater in Copenhagen in 1986. When asked about Worsaae following his passing, Tomasson told Lewis Segal of the Los Angeles Times that, “Jens-Jacob would hardly ever compromise. He didn’t like shortcuts. People in the costume shop would say, ‘Jens-Jacob, nobody’s going to see that (detail) from the back row.’ And he would answer, ‘The dancers are going to see it. And when they put on costumes like that, they feel very special and it carries through into their dancing.’ He felt very strongly about that.” Tomasson added that to him, “Romeo and Juliet” represented Worsaae’s “most personal production in many ways and one he had had wanted to do more than any other work.”
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Credits:
Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson
Composer: Sergei Prokofiev
Designs: Jens-Jacob Worsaae
Design reproduction for Juliet in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet by Jens-Jacob Worsaae, circa 1993-1994
Design reproduction for Lady Capulet in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet by Jens-Jacob Worsaae, circa 1993-1994
San Francisco Ballet in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet, circa 1994 // © Marty Sohl
David Justin as Mercutio, Tina LeBlanc as Juliet, Stephen Legate as Romeo, and Ashley Wheater as Tybalt in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet, circa 1994 // © Chris Hardy
Angelo Greco as Romeo, Joseph Walsh as Mercutio, and Max Cauthorn as Benvolio in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet, 2019 // © Erik Tomasson
WanTing Zhao as Rosaline and Luke Ingham as Tybalt in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet, 2015 // © Erik Tomasson
Jim Sohm as Friar Lawrence in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet, 2015 // © Erik Tomasson
Mathilde Froustey as Juliet and Joseph Walsh as Romeo in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet, 2020 // © Erik Tomasson
San Francisco Ballet in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet // © Erik Tomasson
Val Caniparoli as Lord Capulet in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet, 2011 // © Erik Tomasson
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