A Dance-Drama Exposé
chaikovsky in Love, filmed in Russia and England, is adapted from the ballet sequence in Ian Woodward’s full-length film Love Song: The Triumph and Tragedy of Tchaikovsky, recipient of many awards worldwide, with screenings from Hollywood to Salzburg.
The trailer, and of course the dance-drama film itself, is based on ground-breaking research by English filmmaker Ian Woodward.
It reveals for the first time why Tchaikovsky’s popular Romeo and Juliet Love Theme is not about a teenage boy and girl in love. It is not even about a girl.
In 1869, while employed as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, the 29-year-old Tchaikovsky wrote Romeo and Juliet which he based on Shakespeare’s play of the same name. Although described by the composer as a Fantasy Overture, the overall design is that of a symphonic poem.
It is based on three main strands of the Shakespeare story. The first strand represents the saintly Friar Laurence. This is followed by the warring Capulets and Montagues.
Finally, in the third strand, is the “love theme” representing two lovers. The love music for this episode is passionate and yearning but always with an underlying current of anxiety.
It is the most famous and best-loved section of the piece and shows how the protagonists’ forbidden love affair grows against all odds, even after death.
Filmed in Russia and England, the dance sequence features Serbian National Ballet charismatic soloist Lloyd Petchey as Imperial Russia’s tormented composer and, as his pupil and muse, the young dancer Rowan Shone who has starred with the English National Ballet in their London production of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.
Set to the music of the famous Love Theme, the sequence was choreographed especially for the film by Yat-Sen Chang, former leading dancer with the English National Ballet in London.
“This is a very ambitious production. The dance episode is especially well done.
The sequence of icicles over water is a stunning way to close the film.”
– BIAFF, UK
“The filmmaker has done a fine job of evoking the historical period of Tsarist Russia.”
– HIGHWAY 61 FILM FESTIVAL, MINNESOTA, UNITED STATES
Above: OFFICIAL SELECTION web-page of The Austin Spotlight Film Festival, Texas, USA
