Dance Review: Romeo and Juliet
Australian Ballet, ballet, dance, Jeff Busby, Dance Review: Romeo and Juliet, Gothic, Perth, Nina Levy, Graeme Murphy, Sergei Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet, set design, vaulted ceiling, WA, website, The West Australian, Western Australia.
<p>Nina Levy’s review of Graeme Murphy’s production of Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet by the Australian Ballet appeared in the online version of The West Australian newspaper on October 12, 2012. It includes a photograph by Jeff Busby. Although the review is positive overall, Levy criticises the ‘variety of locations in time and place’. These include ‘medieval-looking vaulted rooms’ which presumably had vaulted ceilings. Ribbed vaulting was a characteristic feature of Gothic architecture of the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. </p>
<p>The review is available at <a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/15107553/dance-review-romeo-and-juliet/">http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/15107553/dance-review-romeo-and-juliet/</a></p>
Levy, Nina
The West Australian
October 12, 2012
Busby, Jeff (photograph)
The West Australian; Nina Levy
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‘A Ro-Me-Owe and Jew-Liet Revival (New Reading)’, <em>The Bulletin</em>, 17 November 1904
Balcony scene, <em>Bulletin</em> cartoons, economy, Her Majesty’s Theatre, I.O.U., James C. Williamson (1845-1913), Livingston Hopkins aka ‘Hop’ (1846-1927), loan, Miss Tittell Brune (1875-1974), New South Wales, NSW State loans, Romeo and Juliet, satire, Sir Joseph Carruthers (1856-1932), state politics, <em>Sydney Morning Herald</em>, William Shakespeare (c.1564-1616), usury.
‘Hop’ produced this <em>Bulletin</em> cartoon at a time when J. C. Williamson’s theatre company was staging William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Sydney. The popular young American actress Miss Tittell Brune was in the starring role, with Mr R. A. Greenaway as Romeo and Mr Roy Redgrave (patriarch of the famous English acting family) as Mercutio (See <em>The Sydney Morning Herald</em>, Nov 12, 1904, p. 2. <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/1329960?" target="_blank">http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/1329960?</a>) Judging from reviews written at the time, Miss Brune’s “charming” balcony performance was hugely successful (See, for example, <em>The Sydney Morning Herald</em>, Nov 16, 1904, p. 2. <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/1330003?" target="_blank">http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/1330003?</a>). So, Hop’s cartoon was not only timely but also bound to raise a laugh or a smile of recognition from Sydney theatre-goers. The NSW government was barely into its fifth month of office, and Sir Joseph Carruthers − who was both premier and treasurer − had inherited the difficult task of dealing with accumulated State debts. <em>The Sydney Morning Herald</em> calculated that NSW owed around £4,310,000, to be paid-off over thirty years (<em>The Sydney Morning Herald</em>, October 10, 1904, p. 6. <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/1329596?" target="_blank">http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/1329596?</a>). Subsequently, Hop depicts premier Carruthers fawning and gesticulating to a bored and stereotypically Jewish financier. In the background, three spheres suspended in the night sky represent usury. Hop’s critique of the NSW economy is clearly designed to keep the matter firmly under continuous (and sceptical) public scrutiny.
Livingston Hopkins (‘Hop’)
<em>The Bulletin</em>
<em>The Bulletin</em>
17 November 1904, Cover
Public Domain
Journal (Microfilm)
The Feigned Death of Juliet
bedchamber, Capulet, characters, Count Paris, domestic interior, Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), Friar Laurence, Juliet, Lady Capulet, medieval dress, music, musical instruments, musicians, nurse, play, Romeo and Juliet, SA, Shakespearean characters, South Australia, tragedy, William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
This oil on canvas painting by nineteenth-century artist Frederic Leighton was acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia with funds from the Elder Bequest in 1899. Titled ‘The Feigned Death of Juliet’ it depicts a scene from William Shakespeare’s tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet'. In Act IV Scene V of the play, Count Paris arrives at the Capulet house with Friar Laurence to claim Juliet as his bride. However, instead of finding her ready to proceed to the church to be wed, he discovers Juliet seemingly lifeless in her chamber. In Leighton’s painting, Juliet is shown lying on a bed surrounded by her mother, her nurse, her father and Count Paris. Friar Laurence hovers in the corner and a band of musicians congregate by the open door with their instruments. Although the play was written in the 1590s, it is set in Verona in an earlier (but unspecified) period. The characters in the painting are all depicted wearing styles of dress typical of the High Middle Ages.
Leighton, Frederic
Art Gallery of South Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia
1856 - 1858
Art Gallery of South Australia
Oil on Canvas, 113.6 x 175.2cm;
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