Oversize Renaissance palaces, over some dozen danced scenes, played out on dual tiers. An oversize pit orchestra for the eloquent Prokofieff music, the most majestic ballet score of the 20^th century, stamping this as the preeminent evening-length achievement of the post-Tchaikovsky era. And a massive cast set opulently in Shakespeare’s Verona. Can anything top this ballet for sheer performance power resonating with romanticism? And the feel of a lavish city state of half a millennium ago, with enough period costumes for half a dozen Italian masked balls.

In the end, it comes down to the touching tragedy of Juliet who——-sorry, Romeo—plays thru three distinct phases of life. She ends up dead on her bier, fans crying in their beer, and she breaking every heart in the house.

This is a “Romeo and Juliet” ballet to die for, a three-act spectacle and farewell message from the departed Helgi Tomasson and the late designer Jens-Jacob Worsaae in his final masterpiece, created at SFB in 1994.

The San Francisco Ballet put it all together for the April 21 opening, with a heroine from the lower ranks emerging, like some forgotten waif, to save the day as Juliet. Tapped for the opener’s cast was a mere soloist, Jasmine Jimison of Palo Alto, with a colossal assignment given the competition of international artists on the SFB roster.

If Jasmine is not promoted to principal before the day is out, I’ll eat my Renaissance chapeau. On this very stage where Margot Fonteyn once ruled, this novice tackled the most baffling of all solo challenges in her long Indecision Scene, where acting must triumph over mere dancing. Like the proverbial cat on a hot tin roof, she vacillates, despairs, gravitates and zigzags with her quandary, close to madness: Face the parental orders to marry the bland suitor Paris, or risk possible death taking the risky draught given her by the benevolent friar turned medicine-man Laurence.

(Aficionados will recognize her telltale transition of letting down the long hair, usually verging on some mad scene, as Jimison had already demonstrated playing Giselle this winter.)

Tearing around the stage like a trapped wild animal, she shows a rare ferocity stamping her rare and too-long-overlooked talent.

The young artist paired beautifully with the Romeo of Angelo Greco, a good-looking matinee-idol type who on any other night might have stolen the show with his skyward leaps, whipping turns, and ferocious fencing to boot. He stands heroic among the five cadavers littering this drama, descending into an unforgettable love-death of a beloved doomed couple, deeply etched in memory after the last curtain.

The stunning cast this night featured Luke Ingram as the murderous Tybalt, Esteban Hernández as the ill-fated cutup Mercutio, and the veteran Jim Sohm as the mortar-and-pestle Laurence. Casts change nightly.

Do the musicians have sore ribs from being poked by elbows or violin bows in the pit? Though seemingly in standing-room-only mode, the oversize pit orchestra under Martin West was formidable, with the drama of unbridled French horns as well as an alto saxophone so popular in the East. And the lady next to us was ecstatic over the bright multi-color costumes for the huge cast. Last but not least, the most heated or elaborate of sword-fighting scenes were realistically directed by Marco Pistone.

BALLET NOTES—-Past performances of “R&J” on this very stage include the fabled mid-1960s pairing of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, stars apprehended by the S.F. police after a show for attending a pot party, thereby upstaging their on-stage proficiency. In the 1970s Michael Smuin choreographed perhaps the world’s only R&J without the mandatory Balcony Scene, which contains one of the most romantic duos in all ballet, all because of production delays at the SFB. Later performances made up for it….A dispute over a possible happy ending, among other things, forced the original “R&J” ballet premiere to be shunting off to the capital of Moravia in 1938 before becoming a mainstay of Soviet ballet companies….Surprise departure, late news: Executive Director Danielle St. Germain, who arrived concurrently with artistic director Tamara Rojo, is leaving the SFB after only one season.

HELGI TOMASSON’S “ROMEO AND JULIET” with the S.F. Ballet, after Shakespeare, April 21-30, Opera House, San Francisco. For details: (415) 865-2000 or go online, www.sfballet.org.

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