Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words Orchestra of the Royal Opera House & Koen Kessels

• Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953): Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts):
• 1 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Overture 01:27
• 2 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Morning in the Market Place 02:32
• 3 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): The Montagues and Capulets Fight 03:44
• 4 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Juliet and Her Nurse 03:14
• 5 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Going to the Capulet Ball 02:59
• 6 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Dance of the Knights 03:35
• 7 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Juliet and Paris 02:28
• 8 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Romeo Dances for Juliet 02:19
• 9 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Juliet Dances 01:57
• 10 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Mercutio Intervenes 01:32
• 11 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Romeo and Juliet Are Entranced 03:07
• 12 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Tybalt Interrupts 01:38
• 13 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Guests Depart 01:34
• 14 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Balcony Scene 07:17
• 15 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): The Market Place 04:04
• 16 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): The Nurse Gives Romeo a Letter 02:17
• 17 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Friar Laurence Secretly Marries the Lovers 02:14
• 18 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): The Mandolin Dance 01:44
• 19 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Tybalt Picks a Fight 03:18
• 20 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Mercutio's Death 02:51
• 21 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Romeo Avenges the Death of Mercutio 01:38
• 22 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Tybalt's Death and Lady Capulet's Grief 03:52
• 23 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Romeo and Juliet Part 04:15
• 24 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Juliet Refuses to Marry Paris 04:45
• 25 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): The Apothecary 05:12
• 26 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): Juliet Takes the Potion 04:07
• 27 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): The Young Bride Is Presumed Dead 01:40
• 28 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): The Capulet Family Crypt 03:52
• 29 Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpts): The Deaths of the Lovers 03:43
• Total Runtime 01:28:55

Info for Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words

This spectacular recording of the music used in the film Romeo & Juliet - Beyond Words features extended highlights from Sergei Prokofiev's iconic score. In their first studio recording in over 15 years the award-winning Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, conducted by the Music Director of The Royal Ballet, Koen Kessels, play as to the manner born in this thrilling performance.

Starring Francesca Hayward, William Bracewell and a host of The Royal Ballet’s finest dancers, Kenneth MacMillan’s iconic ballet is brought to life in this special film, shot on location by the Emmy Award-winning pairing of Michael Nunn and William Trevitt.

Highlighting the essence of MacMillan’s world-renowned choreography, Nunn and Trevitt’s Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words takes viewers into the action with a striking intimacy. Through detailed portrayals by The Royal Ballet dancers, audiences come to know Shakespeare’s iconic tale as a gripping story through an audacious experience that is by turn epic and intimate. With the story presented in a ground-breaking new light, the film captures the extraordinary performances that have earned The Royal Ballet the reputation of producing the greatest actor-dancers in the world, and their artistry pays tribute to a production that is internationally recognised as the zenith of dance storytelling.

"It reveals Hayward both as a luminous screen presence and as an astonishingly lyrical, heartfelt Juliet, a dancer who illuminates the traditional steps and makes them live and breathe." (The Times)

"Exciting, romantic, tragic. Convincing as a ballet and as a drama. A vibrant, up-close take on one of The Royal Ballet's best-loved dramas." (Lyndsey Winship, THE GUARDIAN)

"Fresh and dynamic - there is a breathless immediacy to this. The Royal Ballet’s ensemble playing is rich in detail and the leading roles are cast to the hilt." (Louise Levene, THE FINANCIAL TIMES)

William Bracewell (Romeo)
Francesca Hayward (Juliet)
Matthew Ball (Tybalt)
Marcelino Sambé (Mercutio)
James Hay (Benvolio)
Kristen McNally (Lady Capulet)
Christopher Saunders (Lord Capulet)
Romany Pajdak (Nurse)
Thomas Mock (Paris)
Bennet Gartside (Friar Laurence)
First Soloists
Soloists and Artists of The Royal Ballet
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Koen Kessels, conductor

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden
The Orchestra accompanies The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet on the Main Stage under the music direction of Jakub Hrůša (The Royal Opera) and Koen Kessels (The Royal Ballet).

The Orchestra is renowned worldwide for its outstanding musicians, and the distinguished roster of international conductors with whom it has played. In 2019 they won ‘Opera Orchestra of the Year’ in the International Opera Awards. They have also toured with The Royal Opera to Japan and performed at venues including Symphony Hall (Birmingham), Cadogan Hall and the Vienna Konzerthaus

The Orchestra accompanies performances that are streamed all over the world, including through cinema screenings and broadcasts. They appear on many CDs and DVDs including Pappano’s acclaimed studio recording of Tristan und Isolde with Plácido Domingo and Nina Stemme.

The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House was founded in 1946 when the Royal Opera House reopened after World War II.

Koen Kessels
made his Royal Ballet debut in 2008 conducting The Nutcracker and has since returned every Season, to conduct a repertory including The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Symphony in C and the world premieres of Raven Girl, Untouchable, Woolf Works, Frankenstein and Multiverse. He has been Music Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet since 2010, and becomes Music Director of the Dutch National Ballet in August 2024.

Kessels was born in Oostende, Belgium, and studied at the Antwerp Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music. He was appointed Music Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2010. He has guest conducted for such companies as Teatro alla Scala, Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma, Wiener and Bayerisches Staatsballet, Kunliga Operan, deMunt Brussels, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Ballet Opéra National de Paris, Théâtre du Capitole, New York City Ballet, New National Theatre Tokyo, Teatro Real Madrid.

His ballet repertory includes Le Parc, Coppélia, La Source, Proust, Cinderella, Hurlevent, Hommage à Jerôme Robbins, Giselle, French Program, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Firebird, Jewels, Romeo and Juliet and The Prince of the Pagodas. Opera repertory includes Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin (Antwerp), Hosokawa’s Hanjo (La Monnaie, Brussels) and operas by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Britten, among others.

His ballet repertory includes Coppélia, La Source, Sylvia, Giselle, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Firebird, Petrushka, Apollo, Les Noces, The Rite of Spring, Prodigal Son, Jewels, The Prince of the Pagodas, Hurlevent, Carmina Burana, Proust ou l’Intermittence du Coeur, Hommage à Jerôme Robbins, Two Pigeons, Le Parc, Symphony in C, M Julie, Bolero, La Valse, Suite en Blanc, L’Arlésienne, Fall River Legend, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Winters Tale, After the Rain, Within the Golden Hour and The Judas Tree. He also conducted the world premieres of Psyche, Untouchable, Flight Pattern, Frankenstein, Symphonic Dances, Strapless, Corybantic Games, Raven Girl, Woolf Works, Yugen, Sunyata, Processen, The Dante Project and The Cellist.

Opera repertory includes Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, Hosokawa’s Hanjo, Cherkaoui and Len's Shell Shock, Wim Henderickx’s De Bekeerlinge and operas by Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Puccini, Britten, Maxwell Davies.

Koen is President of the artistic direction team at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, Honorary Professor at Birmingham University, Artistic Director of Inspiratum and HERMESensemble.

Joby Talbot
English composer Joby Talbot made his Royal Ballet debut in 2006, with the score for Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor’s Chroma. Talbot has since written three full-length ballet scores for the Company, in collaboration with Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2011), the Company’s first full-length commission for more than twenty years, The Winter’s Tale (2014) and Like Water for Chocolate (2021).

Joby Talbot was born in London in 1971. He studied composition privately with Brian Elias and at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, before completing a Master of Music (Composition) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Simon Bainbridge.

Talbot’s diverse catalogue also includes small and large-scale choral and vocal works (The Wishing Tree, 2002; Path of Miracles, 2005; A Sheen of Dew on Flowers, 2019); orchestral pieces (Sneaker Wave, 2004; Chacony in G Minor, 2011; Worlds, Stars, Systems, Infinity, 2012, ); concerti (Desolation Wilderness for Alison Balsom , 2006; Ink Dark Moon for Milos Karadaglic, 2018); silent film scores (The Lodger, 1999; The Dying Swan, 2002; Vampyr, 2018) and feature film and television scores (The League of Gentlemen, 1999 - 2005; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 2005; Sing, 2016; Sing 2, 2021 and Wonka, 2023).

Talbot’s critically acclaimed first opera, Everest, was given its premiere in 2015 by The Dallas Opera. His second opera based on the true story The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, a further collaboration with librettist Gene Sheer, premiered in November 2023. Oscar, Talbot’s fourth large scale collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon, commissioned by The Australian Ballet, will open in Melbourne in September 2024.

This album contains no booklet.