Montagues and Capulets

16-yr-old boy, and we're working on - yep, you guessed it - Prokofiev's Montagues and Capulets.  It had been a little while since I'd heard it.  The first part was okay (needed more attack, and he needs to practice his octave scales).  Then we got to the middle section, which is major, sweet, and triple time (as opposed to minor, violent, and duple).  Instead of a lovely sweet tone, he did a fabulous attack on the first note, which was really what I needed for the first part, but not here.

Me: Whoa!  What is happening in the music here?
Boy: Um... It's... [hand gestures - I wish I could have taped this and uploaded the video]
Me: Well, what's the piece about?
Boy: The... er.. Montagues and Capulets...?
Me: And... who are they?
Boy: Well, it's from Romeo and Juliet.
Me: ...And...?  Tell me about Romeo and Juliet. [this is sometimes a very disturbing eye-opener, when I discover my students know very little of Shakespeare].
Boy: Okay, so there are these two families, the Montagues and the Capulets.  And... the daughter and son... of the families... they fall in love with each other.  While the families are still, you know, feuding.  [With a 'weird' tone of voice] And the families continue to hate each other even while the kids are, you know, in love. [Hands rolling, yadda yadda yadda]  Oh, then it looks like Juliet has died, so Romeo ... umm... kills himself... And then Juliet finds out Romeo is actually dead, so she... ... dies.
Me: Good synopsis.  Back to the Montagues and Capulets.  What are they doing when they're feuding?
Boy [like, duh]: They're... fighting...
Me: Put yourself in 15th century Verona [not sure if that's the right century - sorry].  How are you going to fight?  Are you going to confront the other lot and go, hey, um, we're fighting?  [boy shakes head] Are you going to use a cannonball?  A shotgun?  A hand grenade?
Boy: No, you'd do some sword fighting.
Me [breathing sigh of relief]: Great. 

There was more - like what Juliet is actually doing in the slow part...  But I'll leave it there for now.