A major ballet event is set to take place at the Circus Maximus in Rome tonight, 24 July, and tomorrow, 25 July 2026, with the Rome Opera Ballet, directed by Eleonora Abbagnato.
An audience of 6,000 can see John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, a version of the ballet that premiered in 1958 in Venice with the Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company and Carla Fracci as Juliet.
Cranko reworked his choreography in 1962 for the Stuttgart Ballet, giving rise to a ballet that has become a symbol of the Stuttgart company and remains one of the masterpieces of 20th-century dance. Cranko said, “The challenge is to create a ballet on two levels: as dance and as a story.” His choreography maintains the balance between dramatic expression and choreographic composition. Cranko also wanted to blend “acrobatic elements or folk dance steps” with classical dance, adding, “Provided that they are used poetically.”
When the Joffrey Ballet first performed this version in 1984, Anna Kisselgoff in The New York Times said that “John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet is arguably the best dance treatment of Prokofiev’s celebrated ballet score.” She added, “Cranko’s version always made more of an ensemble impression. It is as concerned with the picture created by the townsfolk in their public groupings as with the private tragedy of Romeo and Juliet,” which makes it ideal for the vast open-air chariot-racing stadium in Rome.
This production entered the repertoire of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in 1995, and was last seen in 2003. In 2010, at the Caracalla Baths, Fracci created a version drawing on the legacy of choreographers with whom she had collaborated throughout her career, including Loris Gai, John Cranko and Erik Bruhn.
Set and costume design is by Jürgen Rose, Cranko’s long-standing collaborator, who designed the sets and costumes for the 1962 production and was also involved in the 1995 Rome production. The choreography is revived by Yseult Lendvai, who in 1995 played Juliet at Teatro Costanzi (Rome’s opera house), alternating with Carla Fracci.
Étoile Susanna Salvi is Juliet, joined by principal dancer Michele Satriano as Romeo. The cast also features Claudio Cocino as Tebaldo, Simone Agrò as Mercutio, Mattia Tortora as Benvolio, and Giacomo Castellana as Paris.
