The Cold War currently being waged between Eteri Tutberidze of Sambo-70 and Evgeni Plushenko of the Angels of Plushenko has provided much fodder for figure skating-related discussion in a season notable for its paucity of skating, and the coaches' dueling
Romeo and Juliet programs is certainly no exception to this state of affairs. Both Ms. Tutberidze and Mr. Plushenko have selected not only a
Romeo and Juliet long program for Daria Usacheva and Alexandra Trusova respectively, but both long programs use exactly the same music cuts, in the exact same order, and in roughly the same proportions: first, Craig Armstrong's
O Verona from the Baz Luhrmann
Romeo + Juliet film, second, Abel Korzeniowski's
Come, Gentle Night from the 2013
Romeo and Juliet film starring Hailee Steinfeld, and finally, Sergei Prokofiev's famous
Dance of the Knights from his
Romeo and Juliet ballet. Coincidence? I think not!
While
Romeo and Juliet programs are a dime a dozen in the figure skating world--
for example, note this post written by yours truly in 2012 discussing the Romeo and Juliet programs of the top three Japanese men at the time--the surfeit of similarities between the two programs, combined with the animosity between the two coaching teams, strongly indicates that Ms. Tutberidze and Mr. Plushenko's choice of
Romeo and Juliet is far from coincidental. Further adding intrigue into the mix is the fact that Alena Kostornaia--formerly of Sambo-70 and now currently among the ranks of the Angels of Plushenko camp--recently skated her own
Romeo and Juliet long program during the 2018-2019 season, albeit with different music cuts. Let's take a look at all three programs . . .
