[May 2026] After spending a night at a friends’ house in Fontainebleau, France, our friend and her husband joined us in Paris.
After meeting up with mutual friends—a couple living in Paris and another in New York—and spending a short but pleasant time together, the four of us went to see a ballet.
Incidentally, the brasserie our Parisian friend chose as our meeting place was quite nice.
I’ve forgotten the name, but it was near the Bastille.
This time, we saw “Romeo and Juliet” at the Opéra Bastille.
The Romeo and Juliet performed in Paris is the Nureyev version.
I am used to the MacMillan version, so I was interested in the differences.
And indeed, they were quite different.
First of all, the Nureyev version has a lot more male dancing.
My impression was that Romeo was the main character, and Juliet was merely his partner.
The story unfolded subtly differently in several places.
For example, in the MacMillan version, Lady Capulet dramatically grieves over Tybalt’s death, and this is one of the highlights.
However, in the Nureyev version, Juliet herself grieves.
Another interesting difference is that in the MacMillan version, the two main characters share their first kiss at the balcony scene, but in the Nureyev version, they are kissing profusely from the very beginning.
Also, in the Nureyev version, in the final tomb scene, Romeo kills her suitor, Paris.
Even as the two main characters reach their tear-jerking climax in the centre of the stage, the murdered Paris remains lying on the edge of the stage until the very end, making the dancer playing Paris seem quite pitiful.
I also felt that the emphasis on certain scenes differed.
This time, the role of Romeo was played by Guillaume Diop.
I knew he was the first Black étoile (principal dancer) of the Paris Opera Ballet, but I hadn’t paid much attention to him before.
However, seeing him in person relatively close up, his looks is outstanding with the long legs; that alone seems to be 80% of the reason for his success.
His face is also very pretty.
Of course, his technique is solid.
I’ve decided I’ll be paying close attention to him from now on.
The Juliet was played by a Korean dancer named Kang Ho-hyun, and she was neither particularly good nor bad; she was just competently good.
This Nureyev version was almost three hours long, but it didn’t feel that long to me.
My husband said it was long, though.
