Works & Process: Philadelphia Ballet: Romeo and Juliet by Juliano Nunes

Sergei Prokofiev’s *Romeo and Juliet* turns Shakespeare’s feud and young love into a full-length classical ballet, scored with sharp contrasts and sudden tenderness. The music, written in the mid-1930s and later revised for performance, has become one of the repertory’s most durable narrative scores. In the New York area it appears here in an unusual frame: choreographer Juliano Nunes places the drama inside the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s spiraling architecture, with the New Jersey Symphony providing the orchestral weight. The setting makes the story’s public pressure feel literal, surrounding the dancers on all sides.