Arts & Events

Great Singing in Gounod’s ROMÉO ET JULIETTE

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Sunday September 22, 2019 - 12:22:00 PM

It’s been more than thirty years since I last heard Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (in San Francisco Opera’s 1987-88 production starring Ruth Ann Swenson). So this year’s new production, which opened the season on September 6, was eagerly awaited by me, especially given that soprano Nadine Sierra was scheduled to sing the role of Juliette (or, as Shakespeare spelled it, Juliet). Then, however, only a few days prior to opening night, tenor Bryan Hymel, who was scheduled to sing Romeo, withdrew suddenly for unspecified “personal reasons.” Into Hymel’s place stepped Pene Pati, who is familiar to local audiences from his years with the Merola Program and the Adler Fellowship Program. In this context my initial decision to skip opening night and attend a later performance seemed all the wiser, since Pene Pati had very little time to prepare himself for opening night, even if he was scheduled to sing the last performance of Roméo et Juliette on October 1with his wife, Amina Edris, as Juliet.  

So it was that I attended the Saturday, September 21, Roméo et Juliette; and I was glad I had waited. Although Pene Pati’s opening night performance drew quite favourable reviews, it was noted that he sounded a bit hesitant at the beginning. By the September 21 performance, any hint of hesitation was gone; and Pati sang gloriously from beginning to end. Moreover, Nadine Sierra was absolutely sensational as Juliet! Her Act I aria, “Je veux vivre dans le rève qui m’enivre,” set to a waltz-tune, was, as always, a coloratura show-stopper! Likewise, Pene Pati’s Act II aria, “Ah! lève-toi soleil,” in the so-called balcony scene, which in Jean-Louis Grinda’s staging was set in a garden with only a retaining wall in place of a balcony, was beautifully sung. 

Earlier in the opera, when Romeo and Juliet first catch sight of one another and are instantly smitten, they approach each other formally, singing a tender, polite “Madrigal” as they test out their feelings for one another. However, by the Act II balcony scene, they exchange mutual vows of love. And by Act III, Scene 1, the lovers meet in the den of Friar Lawrence, sung here by bass James Creswell, who consents to marry them in secret, withholding the news of this marriage due to the enmity between the Montagues and the Capulets.  

Although happy in their love, Romeo and Juliet experience a major setback when a fight breaks out between the warring families. Stephano, Romeo’s page, gloriously sung here by debuting soprano Stephanie Lauricella, mockingly taunts the Capulets. Tybalt, a Capulet, sung here by tenor Daniel Montenegro, picks a fight, first with Romeo, who initially declines the challenge. Romeo’s friend Mercutio, here robustly sung by baritone Lucas Meachem, vigorously takes up Tybalt’s challenge. But when Romeo seeks to dissuade Mercutio from fighting, Tybalt takes advantage of Mercutio’s momentary inattention, and stabs him, killing Mercutio. Now Romeo seeks to avenge his friend’s death at the cowardly hand of Tybalt; and in their duel Romeo kills Tybalt. The Duke of Verona, majestically sung here by veteran bass-baritone Philip Skinner, arrives on the scene and banishes Romeo from Verona. At the close of this fight scene, Romeo, alone on stage, now facing exile, laments his fate in an aria ending in Pene Pati singing what may be the longest=held high note we’re likely to hear all season long! 

Act IV’s bedroom scene features the third of Romeo and Juliet’s four love duets, and this one, following a night of love, is a full-blown love duet in which the formalities and hesitations of their first two duets have disappeared, replaced now by mature confidence in their love and secret marriage. But when Romeo leaves in the early morning, Juliet’s father, sung here by baritone Timothy Mix, arrives in Juliet’s bedchamber to announce that she is to marry Tybalt’s nephew, Paris, this very day. When Capulet leaves, Friar Lawrence offers Juliet a potion that will induce in her a fake death, from which she will awaken a day later and be met secretly by Romeo. 

Left alone, Juliet sings the technically difficult “Potion Aria,” which Gounod dropped from the opera’s premiere and was rarely performed until as recently as the late 1980s. Needless to say, Nadine Sierra brought this treacherous aria off brilliantly.  

Act V takes place in the tomb where the Capulets, believing Juliet dead, have placed her on a funeral bier. Romeo enters, also believing Juliet dead, and bids her a loving farewell, then drinks poison. As he lies dying, Juliet gradually awakens from her potion-induced sleep. Seeing Romeo, Juliet is overjoyed. But soon she realises that Romeo, believing her dead, has taken a poison. Vowing to die with Romeo, Juliet stabs herself with his dagger, and the doomed lovers die in each other’s arms, asking God’s forgiveness.  

Conductor Yves Abel led orchestra, chorus, and singers in a lush, Romantic treatment of Gounod’s score. Jean-Louis Grinda’s staging used simple, evocative sets by Eric Chevalier, which kept the drama focused on the characters themselves. Costumes by Carola Volles were of simplified period dress. Ian Robertson was chorus director. Lawrence Pech choreographed the elaborate dance scene; and Dave Maier staged the fight scene.  

Romeo et Juliette continues for three more performances with the same cast on 9/24 at 7:30, 9/29 at 2:00, and on 10/1 at 7:30 with Amina Edris as Juliette.