Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, Russian Romeo i Dzhulyetta, English in full Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy-Overture After Shakespeareoverture by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky that continues to be much loved as a concert piece. Further, its central love theme is frequently quoted today in romantic scenes for film and television. The work was premiered in Moscow on March 4 (March 16, New Style), 1870, and twice revised, reaching its final form in 1880 (third version first performed 1886).

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1874.Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (file no. LC-USZ62-128254)The idea for a piece using the story of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was suggested by Tchaikovsky’s older, more-experienced colleague, the composer Mily Balakirev, who proposed the subject matter, possible themes, and a general outline for the work. Balakirev was somewhat critical of the results—as Tchaikovsky had in places followed his own instincts rather than Balakirev’s suggestions—yet he expressed cautious approval of the piece as a whole.

Rather than portraying the play’s events in the order in which they occur, Tchaikovsky presents a variety of characters and moods whose melodies offer effective musical contrast. The work opens with a serene clarinet-and-bassoon melody that represents the lovers’ ally, the sombre and reflective Friar Laurence. The music then shifts to suggest violence, with a chaotic theme for the feuding Montague and Capulet families. Soon Tchaikovsky introduces a new melody: the soaring love theme of Romeo and Juliet themselves. As the piece progresses, love and violence share the stage with a sense of growing urgency until the love theme is reprised in a minor key, suggesting their tragic deaths. The work concludes with a hint of Friar Laurence’s melancholy theme (in the play he arrives on the scene too late to prevent the two suicides).