Though MacMillan had conceived the ballet for Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable, for 'bureaucratic reasons' Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev danced the opening night, to MacMillan's disappointment. Kenneth MacMillan's Royal Ballet production of Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 9 February 1965.

MacMillan also took inspiration from Cranko's Romeo and Juliet to include the rowdy harlots in the market scenes. MacMillan and Georgiadias were inspired by Italian Quattrocento paintings and architecture Shakespeare, and Franco Zeffirelli's 1960 Romeo and Juliet production. The imposing, large set designs were utilized to emphasize how small and vulnerable Juliet was in comparison and position her and Romeo as helpless against the society they live in. Nicholas Georgiadis designed the set and costumes with specific intent regarding the characters and feel of the performance. They envisioned Juliet as the headstrong character, making decisions, while Romeo was 'swept off his feet by love'. He, Seymour, and Gable planned the ballet around the characters and their pas de deuxs. MacMillan only had five months to choreograph the full ballet as The Royal Ballet hoped to perform Romeo and Juliet in its upcoming American tour. MacMillan prepared his version with the blessing of Frederick Ashton. This experience made him seem a good candidate to choreograph the entire ballet for Covent Garden, when the Soviet Union refused to allow Leonid Lavrovsky's classic production to tour to London. Seymour stated that the balcony scene pas de deux only took three rehearsals to fully choreograph. This scene provided an essential part of the ballet's overall structure. Kenneth MacMillan had previously choreographed the balcony scene for Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable to dance in September 1964 for Canadian Television. For other uses, see Romeo and Juliet (disambiguation).Ĭhoreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Royal Ballet production of Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 9 February 1965. For Peter Martins' ballet, see Romeo + Juliet (ballet). For Sean Lavery's setting of the balcony scene, see Romeo and Juliet (Lavery). For Rudolf Nureyev's ballet, see Romeo and Juliet (Nureyev).

For John Cranko's ballet, see Romeo and Juliet (Cranko). This article is about the MacMillan ballet to Prokofiev's score.

The faraway lurs