Romeo and Juliet
Charles Gounod
Romeo and Juliet is a romantic French opera full of powerful emotions and music awash with love.
While Faust may be Gounod’s best-known work, Romeo and Juliet is his most cherished. It’s easy to see why. The music moves towards its climax duet by duet, developing the young lovers’ relationship towards its inevitable conclusion.
The young award-winning director Amy Lane is the Artistic Director of the Copenhagen Opera Festival. She sets the events of Shakespeare’s original tale in the hopeful late 19th century New York. The city has welcomed a massive wave of immigrants from Italy, including the Capulets, and the new arrivals, the Montagues, who arrived just 16 years ago.
The Capulets, known for their brilliant parties, organise a circus-themed New Year’s masquerade, and slipping in to the party is a disguised Romeo Montague. For Juliet Capulet, who turns 16 on that night, the world will change. The sense of danger weaves an intriguing tension accompanied by Gounod’s overflowing musical score.
Je t’aime!
I love you!
Two couples alternate in the lead roles. The superstar Lisette Oropesa has Frédéric Antoun as her Romeo, and Marjukka Tepponen, who recently debuted at the Metropolitan Opera, sings with Antonio Poli. Nor does the brilliance end there – Lisette Oropesa also sings in a recital concert in Olavinlinna on 9 July. Read more here
The opera is a Malmö Opera production, which premiered in Sweden in November 2022.
