Romeo & Juliet – Fonteyn and Nureyev 1966 - Ruth Leon

by Ruth Leon

She was 47, he was 28. It was the premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Ballet. Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev took 43 curtain calls that night, February 9th, 1965, eventually needing the safety curtain to descend in order to encourage the audience to leave the theatre. The  critical and box office response was overwhelmingly positive.

Rudolf Nurvyev and Margot Fonteyn in the Royal Ballet production
of Romeo and Juliet 1966. Photo courtesy The Australian

This was famously one of the great nights in the history of ballet but what is less well known is that Fonteyn and Nureyev were not the intended cast. Macmillan had chosen Lynne Seymour and Christopher Gable as his Romeo and Juliet and made the ballet for them to dance on its opening night.

It was then decided, purely for commercial reasons, that Fonteyn and Nureyev would be a bigger draw, particularly for the Royal Ballet’s upcoming tour of America. The famous impresario, Sol Hurok threatened to cancel the tour if Seymour and Gable were not replaced. Kenneth MacMillan was furious but had to give in in the face of Hurok's threat and both Seymour and Gable were  so insulted that they left the Royal Ballet although Seymour subsequently returned. Christopher Gable gave up dancing altogether.

With all the subsequent revivals there have been, danced by the world’s most famous and accomplished dancers, this is the performance we remember. I thought you might like to see it again although the video quality is not great and YouTube interrupts with ads.

Watch on YouTube here!

Music of course by Prokofiev, conducted by John Lanchbery. 

First published at The Arts Online (Ruth Leon’s site), July 15, 2023