GOUNOD'S ROMEO ET JULIETTE AT SANTA FE OPERA

Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez (photo by Ken Howard)

Last night's performance of Charles Gounod's Romeo et Juliette soared with stunning singing and some mighty marvelous musicianship. The chorus (directed by the incomparable Susanne Sheston) sang with such fine French diction that not a word was missed.  The orchestra, under the baton of Harry Bicket, captured all of Gounod's nuance.  This was a co-production with the Fundacio del Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. The opera was making its first appearance at The Santa Fe Opera.

Gounod's success with Faust some 8 years earlier was arguably matched by this adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare by the same librettists who adapted Goethe's masterpiece--Jules Barbier and Michel Carre. Gounod was a master melodist and both operas leave one humming--a very good sign in our estimation.

The opera hews rather closely to the Shakespeare play with a few minor changes and a few deleted characters. To suit the operatic mentality, the librettists chose to focus on the romance between the two young lovers. Nonetheless, in our day and age, with gun control and belligerence on the front page every day, we cannot fail to miss the major point that meaningless hostility between any two groups--be they religious, political, or cultural--leads to irreparable loss to all concerned. We got the message when, at the conclusion of the opera, the opposing parties lay down their swords. Would that all mankind would get the message!

Returning to the issue of melody, the opera includes a breathtaking aria in waltz time for Juliette--"Je veux vivre"; one of our favorite sopranos Ailyn Perez performed this aria with technical mastery equalled only by the sparkle of youthful high spirits. During the course of the opera, Juliette must convey emotional growth from these adolescent high spirits to the solemn lifetime commitment to Romeo,  through the panic of risk-taking to the ultimate grief of loss. These emotional changes were nicely negotiated by Ms. Perez whose instrument has a lovely silvery tone. Her phrasing is impeccable and her French, perfect.

The opera has four duets occurring at different stages of the relationship between the two young lovers. Tenor Stephen Costello, whom we always enjoy, was at the top of his form, allowing his fine sound to soar with freedom of expression. Their two voices blended harmoniously in just the way we want a soprano and tenor to blend.  His "Ah! leve-toi, soleil" was brilliant.. Mr. Costello is appearing at The Santa Fe Opera for the first time. We hope he will return.

And what a pleasure it was to hear baritone Elliot Madore in the role of Romeo's friend Mercutio. His "Queen Mab" aria was delivered with vocal excellence and dramatic validity.  It is too bad that Mercutio gets killed off so early! We would have to say that Mr. Madore owns this role and, if you miss him here in Santa Fe, you can hear him sing the role at The Metropolitan Opera in New York.

As the young page Stephano, mezzo-soprano Emily Fons impressed us as favorably as she did when she performed the role of Cherubino three years ago.  But we didn't know she could dance!

Bass Raymond Aceto whom we enjoyed as Wells Fargo agent Ashby in Fanciulla del West, demonstrated his versatility in the role of Frere Laurent.

Mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel portrayed Juliette's nurse Gertrude and portrayed her successfully.

The role of Tybalt was well-sung by apprentice Cooper Nolan whose versatile tenor was enjoyed Sunday night in the role of Stiffelio in the Apprentice Recital.

As Juliette's father Count Capulet, baritone Tim Mix used his substantial instrument and stage presence to create a formidable character.

In contrast with the superlative musical values, the production values were disappointing. Director Stephen Lawless chose to remove the story from its natural time and place--Renaissance Verona--and set it in Gounod's own period.  Instead of civil unrest we had two opposing armies, one dressed in red, the other in blue. (Had they been blue and grey we might have been thinking of the American Civil War). In place of a monk in a monastery, we had a doctor in an army field hospital who took off his (bloodied) white coat and joined Romeo and Juliet in marriage right there in the hospital!

Perhaps Mr. Lawless meant to create an abstract symbol for all such internecine wars.  But in our opinion, it works better to stick to the specifics of time and place and allow the audience to generalize to their own situations.

The costumes by Ashley Martin-Davis were gorgeous and we loved the way the chorus stripped away their mourning black to reveal white ball gowns.  However, the 1860's fashions seemed terribly incongruent with the story and Ms. Perez' gown seemed quite inappropriate for an adolescent.  As a matter of fact the voluminous fabric seemed to swallow her up.

We were equally dismayed by Ms. Martin-Davis' set design.  We seemed to be in some kind of mausoleum which might have worked for the final tomb scene but which did not work well for Juliette's residence. The walls were divided into squares, each bearing a name. Watching the opera from the 8th row, we could make out the names which was distracting. They were mostly British names. Did this mean we were in England?  In America? Was there a body entombed behind each plaque? In truth, it looked like a morgue and we half expected the doctor to slide one open.

But that didn't happen.  What did happen was that doors opened and closed with singers entering and exiting. It made neither dramatic sense nor spatial sense.

So once again we have reveled in the musical artistry and despaired over "concept".  We will take our opera "neat", thank you, without the concept.

(c) meche kroop

ROMEO AND JULIET FOR TODAY

Scott Ingham and Kendra Berentsen-photo by Jacob Lopez

In Shakespeare's play, we are moved by the language; in Sir Kenneth MacMillan's ballet, the choreography gives us thrill after thrill; in Charles Gounod's opera Roméo et Juliette, the music goes straight to the heart.  As presented by the New York Opera Exchange this past weekend, we were presented with a modern dress version performed by some superb young artists and the New York Opera Exchange Orchestra, conducted by David Leibowitz.

Gounod's music always relates to the emotions of the scene and serves to augment the feelings.  The overture is portentous and has some interesting fugue-like figures originating with Concertmaster Suxiao Sue Yang.  We want to commend the chorus (comprising singers with smaller roles) for such fine diction.  French is one of the more difficult languages to sing clearly and, in this case, every word was understood.  We wondered who coached them--perhaps Music Director Alden Gatt?

We were very impressed with soprano Kendra Berentsen who made an innocent and vulnerable Juliette, expressing her emotions with a room-filling sound and beautiful phrasing.  The challenging aria "Je veux vivre" is filled with trills, thrills and scales, none of which daunted her; her easeful upper register resonated gloriously.  The harmonies with her Roméo were delightful and emphasized the chemistry between the two.  Tenor Scott Ingham was superb in that role, demonstrating a powerful sound and some top-notes that were free of the strain so often heard in young tenors.  We loved his "Ah! Lève-toi soleil". We eagerly awaited the softer orchestral passages in the final scene in order to hear what he sounded like at reduced volume.

Special mention must be made of baritone Nicholas A. Wiggins who performed the role of Mercutio as well as we have ever heard it.  The "Ballad of Queen Mab" was superb.  Mezzo Rebecca Henry made the most of her role as Gertrude, Juliet's nurse.  Initially she was quite disapproving of her charge's romance but she comes around to a place of empathy.  In the pants role of Stephano, mezzo Sarah Miller gave a spirited performance and sang "Que fais-tu blanche tourtourelle?" with a lovely sound and fine vibrato.

Bass-baritone Colin Whiteman was fine as Frère Laurent, Victor Starsky sang the role of Tybalt, Joseph Palarca performed the role of Benvolio, Joseph Beckwith was a kindly father Capulet and Javier Ortiz was Paris.

We were delighted to observe the youthful nature of the audience; perhaps they related more to the contemporary clothing (costumes?).  We, sadly, did not.  The story is a window into another century and another country.  It could not have happened in the USA in present times.  We did not miss the swordplay but we did miss the authenticity.  For example, a sleeping potion would not be given by a cleric to his parishioner whereas a friar would have known all about herbs and potions.  Similarly we found the bizarre headdresses used to replace the masks at the ball to be a distracting touch; indeed Juiette was obliged to wear a schooner on her head!  But these are minor quibbles when the overall production and musical values were so excellent.  The production was directed by Andreas Hager.  We are looking forward to Die Zauberflöte in February!

© meche kroop

OPERA STARS IN RECITAL

Joseph Kaiser, Myra Huang, Susanna Phillips

We jump at any chance to hear major opera stars up close and personal in a recital format.  Sometimes they fall a bit short without the drama, the scenery and the costumes.  No such disappointment existed at the Morgan Library Sunday afternoon when Metropolitan Opera stars Susanna Phillips and Joseph Kaiser shared the recital stage with collaborative pianist Myra Huang and violinist Michelle Ross.  This was the last recital of the season presented by the George London Foundation for Singers.

We reviewed Ms. Phillips solo recital at Carnegie Hall last February which completely blew us away  (see "From Snow to Glow") but had never heard Mr. Kaiser in recital.  This afternoon's  program was entirely in French.  We delighted in hearing some familiar favorites, especially Ms. Phillips' performance of Mozart's "Dans un bois solitaire et sombre" and Martini's "Plaisir d'amour".  But it was her performance of "Certain coucou" by André Grétry that completely charmed us.  Those who love Mahler will recognize the tale of the voice competition in which the nightingale is overlooked by the donkey judge in favor of the owl and the cuckoo.  We couldn't help opining about the current taste in music which makes us think that many audiences are composed of...donkeys! 

Tenor Joseph Kaiser was a pleasure to hear as well, particularly in Henri Duparc's "Phydilé" in which he showed exquisite dynamic control which was matched by the super-sensitive collaborative pianist Myra Huang who always seems to breathe along with the singer.  Mr. Kaiser also introduced us to a song that was new to us but will surely become one of our favorites--"Si vous croyez que je vais dire" from André Messager's Fortunio.  We are known to be suckers for melody and what a gorgeous melody did we hear.

Still, it was two opera singers we were enjoying and must say that our favorite part of the afternoon was towards the end when we heard two selections from Gounod's  Roméo et Juliette.  Ms. Phillips' thrillingly bright soprano made "Je veux vivre" totally scintillating.  What followed was a duet with Mr. Kaiser, the scene in which the enamored couple must part since Romeo has been exiled.  It was incredibly moving and no sets or costumes were needed for us to believe the tragedy of premature separation.

Included in the program was the Meditation from Massenet's Thaïs which gave us the opportunity to hear Ms. Huang accompanying violinist Michelle Ross.  It was outstanding--sweetly seductive and passionate.

© meche kroop

THE MEDIUM AND THE MESSAGE

How do we love Romeo and Juliet?  Let us count the ways.  Do you swoon for Shakespeare's iambic pentameter?   Will wrote his masterpiece in the late 16th c.  based upon a story which dated back to antiquity and had been given several incarnations until the bard brought the two young lovers and their warring families to life.

Do you prefer treating the tale operatically?  Countless composers have given it a go.  Gounod's Roméo et Juliette is arguably the best known.  Bellini's I Capuleti ed I Montecchi has some lovely tunes but has been criticized for not following the story.  Berlioz' version is more of an oratorio.  Let us not forget Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem.

The medium of film has made good use of the story as well.  Zeffirelli's 1968 version far surpassed MGM's 1936 version by casting young non-actors in the lead roles, lending the tale the advantage of verisimilitude.  Baz Luhrman made a post-modern MTV version in 1996.  The Bernstein/Sondheim musical of 1957 West Side Story was based on R&J and was filmed in 1961.

But for us, the pinnacle of pleasure is reached in the medium of ballet.  The visuals and the kinesthetics  allows us to turn off our intellect and to directly experience the intensity of adolescent passion, intergenerational conflict, tribal warfare and profound loss.  John Cranko choreographed a superb R&J in 1962 and Sir Kenneth MacMillan a no less wonderful one in 1965.  It is this latter version currently being presented by the American Ballet Theater.  We just witnessed a triumph of role interpretation by Herman Cornejo who wears the role of Romeo like a second skin.  We were quite sure no one could replace Julio Bocca and the memory of his performance remains untarnished in our mind; but Mr. Cornejo owes us no apologies.  What he lacks in height is more than made up for by his artistry; actually his size works to his advantage in this role and  he is completely believable as an impetuous adolescent.  Xiomara Reyes is a winsome Juliet and convinces us that she is but 13 years old.  The production was effectively staged by Julie Lincoln and the handsome sets and costumes, mostly in tones of burnt sienna and ochre, evince Renaissance Italy.

So, readers, what is your pleasure?  The printed word, the spoken word, film, opera, musical, or ballet?  Please leave your opinions and comments!