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Director of the ballet festival in Savonlinna Hanu Hyttinen said so after the first performance of Romeo and Juliet in the castle of Olavinlinna. The ballet was staged by Kirill Simonov, chief ballet master of the Musical Theatre of Karelia. This year on the medieval stage actors of Musical Theatre perform three times on August 6, 7 and 8. The audience enjoyed dancing of young actors Alevtina Mukhortikova, Anatoly Skuratov, Vladimir Varnava, Valentina Penkova, Alexey Zaritsky, Natalia Galsanova and other ballet dancers. In 2008 actors of the Musical Theatre in a tandem with the Philharmonic Orchestra have won the audience of Savonlinna, and, as a result, Hanu Hyttinen has decisided to continue creative cooperation with Karelia.

This summer our Musical Theatre opened its doors to Petrozavodsk public after major overhaul and has surprised with the high level of modern performances.

– I wanted to the fill classical tragedy with feelings close to modern public. The main task is development of the image. Ballet about love is interesting to people of all age, and everyone has his own Romeo and Juliet deep in his heart. The ballet in three days of the festival will be performed by three different casts, and every day all actors will change. Here, in Savonlinna, the audience will have a chance to compare both the general level of performances, and skills of each soloist.

Admirers of the ballet festival hurried on the opening day to the castle pending a new meeting with Karelian actors and musicians. Last year's successful performances impressed the audience, therefore, the new meeting caused genuine interest.

– This is a very impressive ballet, – one of the festival fans Lisa Suominen has noted in the intermission. – The orchestra is outstanding, in the play there are many physical elements perfectly performed. I like Romeo and Juliet better than Swan Lake.

Larisa and Sergey who came to the festival from Moscow for the second time have especially mentioned professional growth of the troupe in comparison with the last year:

– One may feel cohesion of the troupe, see pattern of the dance, – Larisa says. – It is hard to believe it has taken so little time to prepare this ballet. "Modernist style" staging is presented at a very high level. Romeo and Juliet's scene in the second act has moved me to tears.

Maestro Inkov has created the orchestra in a very short period. The audience in Savonlinna where opera festivals are held sets very high standards and pays much attention to the music. The orchestra comprised by one half of not skilled musicians, has coped with a very complicated Prokofiev's score perfectly. Like the accompanist sitting next to the solo-singer, the orchestra followed development of the ballet characters. With their dancing our actors have managed to express not just the legendary love story with its tragical ending, but all the young hearts' sincere feelings and their moving into adulthood.

The first and the most responsible day of the festival was a success. The second day's soloists were Egli Shopkaite and Martinas Remeikis, well familiar to the Finnish audience. Something will slightly change in scenography. Production designer Emil Kapelyush has come to the castle a few days before the festival to get his plans implemented.

Personnel reserve of the republican culture including employees of the Ministry and establishments of culture of Karelia is trained as festival volunteers. They together with the Finnish colleagues they meet public in the castle and help organizers of the festival. It is necessary to add, that the weather this year also prepared to meet Karelian actors – it has become warmer before festival, and in Savonlinna it was from 20 to 25°C above zero.