It begins in candlelight.
An Elizabethan stage glows with flickering torches, the wooden beams of the Globe Theatre alive with whispers of anticipation. The year is the late 1500s, and William Shakespeare himself watches from the wings as two young lovers surrender to their fate. Juliet, breathless and pale, lies beneath velvet drapery; Romeo, trembling with passion and despair, drains the last drop of poison from a glass vial. Their voices, tender and broken, entwine like a prayer as the crowd gasps—the curtain falls, and history is made.
Now shift the scene, centuries later, to neon Tokyo. A minimalist black stage shimmers with digital rain. Two Japanese actors in embroidered kimonos recreate the same eternal moment of tragic union—her dagger flashing in the light, his lips brushing hers in a kiss that transcends death. This is the genius of Romeo and Juliet: a story so timeless, so utterly human, that it has travelled through empires and languages, danced through opera houses and cinemas, whispered across continents, and sung through the centuries in every tongue imaginable.
And now, in Kuala Lumpur, this great tale finds new voice. On Saturday, 25 October 2025, 8.00pm, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) unfurls an evening of splendour at Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS (DFP). Under the inspired baton of Olari Elts, Shakespeare’s immortal lovers are resurrected not with words, but with music: ten passionate excerpts from Prokofiev’s ballet score of Romeo and Juliet. This opus, the most successful full-length ballet score of the 20th century, drips with yearning melodies, wild surges of rhythm, and moments of aching intimacy—music that catches fire in the heart and refuses to release its hold.
But the night does not begin in Verona. The MPO first conjures Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, that silvery overture written by a teenage prodigy, alive with the rustle of enchanted forests and the laughter of fairy tricksters. Then comes one of the crown jewels of the violin repertoire: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. It is a work of astonishing grace, its seamless lyricism like a secret whispered under moonlight.
For this, the orchestra welcomes violinist Karen Gomyo—a name revered on the world’s stages. Described by The Chicago Tribune as “a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity,” Gomyo carries an artistry at once fiery and tender. She has stood alongside the New York Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, and the Warsaw Philharmonic; she has shared chamber music stages with legends such as Leif Ove Andsnes and James Ehnes. She is fearless in her embrace of the new, having premiered works by composers of today, yet remains rooted in the great traditions. In her hands, Mendelssohn’s concerto becomes not a performance but a confession—deeply emotional, profoundly human.
Romeo and Juliet has long haunted the world’s imagination. Bernstein reinvented it in West Side Story, Baz Luhrmann gave it fireworks and guns under the glare of 1990s Hollywood neon, ballet companies from Moscow to New York have told the tale through aching pirouettes, while painters and poets have forever sought to capture the lovers’ final kiss. The music of Prokofiev does not simply accompany Shakespeare’s story—it magnifies it, breathing fresh life into words we already know by heart.
And so, in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, under the crystalline acoustics of DFP, the star-crossed lovers will live again—not on stage in verse, but in symphonic splendour. Lovers of Shakespeare, admirers of great music, seekers of passion and tragedy—you cannot miss this evening of romance, melody and fantasy. It will be a night where the walls of Verona crumble, and love, eternal and unbroken, is heard in every note.
The tragedy of two, the triumph of art, the eternity of music.
Only at DFP.
Bonus: Violin masterclass with Karen Gomyo on Thursday, 23 October 2025 at 6.00 pm, DFP.
For tickets, call 03-23317007 or email boxoffice@dfp.com.my.