Romeo and Juliet, the musical

Yes, we know that “For never was a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet and her Romeo”. And you might ask us: “Is there anything new, guys, that you can tell me about Shakespeare?”. In fact, we will try!

Have you known that except of the classic play written by Shakespeare, numerous Hollywood interpretations, operas and ballets there is also the musical “Romeo and Juliet” that was  written by Gérard Presgurvic in French and first performed in Paris on 19th of January of 2001? Since that this musical gained world popularity and was translated and performed in 6 languages: Russian, German, Italian, Spanish and – Hungarian!

The most popular version of the musical is the French one: "Roméo et Juliette - de la Haine à l'Amour". French version has got a lot of awards, for example, Platinum Europe Awards, and the songs from the musical for a long time kept the top-positions in the European charts. You might have even heard some of them: "Aimer", "Les Rois Du Monde", "On Dit Dans La Rue", "Avoir Un Fille" and “J’ai peur”  More than 1 million of people saw this musical in Paris from 19.01.2001 till 21.12.2002 and more than 3 million CD’s were sold only within this first year.

In the words of Gerard Presgurvic, the composer and librettist: "Romeo and Juliet” is the most romantic and most tragic play in world literature. It would be hard to find a better subject for a good musical. It has everything: hate, love, misunderstanding, death, wedding, freedom. Besides all this I have attempted to use “Romeo and Juliet” to discover many new and timely feelings in myself."

Being a huge fan of musicals, I have seen at least parts of the versions on all the languages and, surprisingly, my personal favorite is Hungarian!  “Romeo es Julia”, the Hungarian performance is an authorized version by the author and was presented first on 23rd of January, 2004 in Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre and till now remains one of the most popular shows in the program of the theater.

What is so good about the Hungarian version? Well, first of all Hungarians decided not to follow blindly the original French version and made a lot of changes in the costumes, ballet performance and even songs that, to my opinion, is very refreshing for the musical and is always met by the spectators with the enthusiasm. Then, the actors of the Operetta Theatre that have exceptional voices and cannot leave anyone indifferent (Dolhai Attila, who plays Romeo, is not only extremely handsome but also a really good singer). And, finally, there is the power of the Hungarian language that makes songs much more passionate. (But do not worry, all the musical comes with the English subtitles!).

The price for the tickets is quite fair, the most expensive is HUF 6 500, and you can buy tickets on-line or near to the Operetta Theater (if you have not been there yet, the address is: 1065 Budapest, Hungary, 6th district, Nagymező utca 17).

So, if you still think about Christmas or St. Valentine’s  Day presents, I highly recommend you to buy couple of the tickets for the show for you and your friend or beloved one: you will definitely want to come to see it more and more times, as I do!

Marina Shvetsova