ASTANA – Sergey Prokofiev’s ballet, “Romeo and Juliet” will be presented to the metropolitan audience on Sept. 19 with the star of the National Opera of Bordeaux, France, Roman Mikhalev playing Romeo. Kazakh star and leading soloist Madina Basbayeva, who will play the role of Juliet, was choreographed by Charles Jude.
The ballet will be performed as part of the first Silk Road International Festival. Basbayeva played the role of Juliet in France at the invitation of Jude and was well received by the French public. She recalled that the audience would not let her go, giving a standing ovation and shouting bravo. The love story that has become a world ballet classic took its niche in the repertoire of the theatre after a big premiere in its first season. The classic staging of the world-renowned choreographer of the Bordeaux ballet troupe, Jude conveys the drama and boiling passion behind the ballet accompanied by the great music of Prokofiev. Jude’s rendition is based off that of Rudolf Nureyev, which is renowned for its sophistication. The production’s decorations and costumes will be designed by Italian designers Ezio Frigerio and Franco Skuarchapino.
The conductor will be Aidar Abzhakhanov of Kazakhstan. Since the last century, more than fifty movies by the same name have been filmed worldwide, in addition to the literary and musical works that make love an inexhaustible theme. Jude, the director of the Bordeaux ballet troupe, is the winner of the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (1990) and Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honour (1996). Mikhalev, the leading soloist of the Bordeaux ballet troupe, won third prize in the Maya-98 international competition in St. Petersburg (1999), first prize at the Nureyev International Ballet Competition in Budapest (2000) and second prize of the Ninth International Ballet Competition (2001).
