Charles Gounod (1818 –1893) was interested in an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet completed by Paul Jules Barbier (8 March 1825 – 16 January 1901) and Michel Carré (20 October 1821– 27 June 1872). The atmosphere of Provence where he began to compose fed his inspiration as he worked quickly and surely. He seemed to write without pause, so spontaneous was the thought animating his pen. In May he finished the big Act IV duet. Three days later he was in the scene in which Juliette drinks the poison. He wrote “The first act ends brilliantly; the second is tender and dreamy, the third bold and animated with the duels and Romeo sentenced to exile: the fourth is dramatic, the fifth tragic. It’s a fine progression.”[i]
In August 1866 he delivered the manuscript to Leon Caravalho (1825-1897) the impresario and stage director at Paris’ Theatre Lyrique. He looked forward to a performance in April of 1867, the year of the Exposition Universelle.
The premiere date clashed with the date of a major Exposition ball and reception. Gounod worried, but Caravalho believed that if the production ended early enough, the patrons could go to the ball and make the new opera the main subject of conversation.
Caravalho promised his stagehands thirty louis if the opera ended before midnight. The curtain fell at 11:45.
Romeo et Juliette was the only unqualified immediate hit Gounod ever had. Caravalho escribed it as a “firework of success.” The opera drew full houses for ninety consecutive performances.
Gounod’s opera is structured around a series of four great love duets. First is the madrigal “Ange adorable” sung when the lovers first meet. The balcony scene contains the second duet “O nuit divine!”. Act three holds “Nuit d’hymene! O duce nuit d’amour!” The final duet climaxes the opera in Juliette’s tomb – “Non! Non, ce n’est pas le jour”
The current production by the Metropolitan Opera directed by Bartlett Sher premiered on New Year’s Eve 2016, conducted by Giancarlo Noseda, with Vittorio Grigolo as Romeo and Diana Damrau as Juliette The holiday offering followed a debut in Salzburg with Rolando Villazon as Romeo, Nino Machaidze as Juliette, and Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducting.
Sher’s production also played in Milan prior to opening in Chicago on its way to New York. In Chicago, Joseph Calleja played Romeo and Susanna Phillips played Juliette. French conductor Emmanuel Villaume presided.
We were there.
In 2015 the most impressive idea was setting the opera in the 18th century. With this simple transposition, we are presented with an opera visually echoing both Les Miz and Hamilton. Catherine Zuber’s costumes allow the dynamic characters to be seen with fresh eyes, though Juliet’s Barbie pink ball gown seemed more suited to a Disney on Ice cavalcade. Designer Michael Yeargan’s set is evocative and powerful, especially in tandem with Jennifer Tipton’s subtle mood lighting, which keeps the roaming focal actor highlighted at all times, while he or she moves amid, and through, the always surging crowd.
In addition, Mr. Sher has a very fine way with actors, especially singing actors. He finds ways to turn seeming inadequacies into strengths, and strengths into character defining traits. His casting of is a case in point. The current cast may be his most effective ever.
B.H. Barry, the dean of stage combat designers, creates aggressive and taunting movements which permeate the relationships, ebbing and flowing, until finally bursting into astounding displays of combat. The World Wrestling Federation was never more exciting.
How can the performances of Joseph Calleja and Susanna Phillips be captured in words?
Nadine Sierra is one of opera’s reigning sweethearts, displaying equal parts skill in acting and singing. She is paired with Benjamin Bernheim, though lesser known, a singing actor at least the equal of Ms. Sierra in acting and singing skill . Together they create a loving couple greater than the sum of their parts. The nurse is played by the ever-impressive Eve Gigliotti, while Chicago’s own Will Liverman delivers a youthful Mercutio with passion and sensitivity. The Met chorus outdoes itself with Gounod’s magnificent score. And Yannick Nezet-Seguin’s instinct for dramatis flair serves the opera every well indeed.
Before each viewing of Romeo et Juliette I say to myself, “this time you will realize it is not as wonderful as you thought”.
And each time I am wrong.
This time Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette proved even more captivating and moving than ever before.
[i] James Harding. Gounod. New York: Stein and Day, 1973.
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