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13 February 2019 (Wed), 19:00 Moscow theatre "New Opera" - Opera Gounod "Romeo and Juliet" tragic opera in three parts

Running time: 3 hours 30 minutes

The performance has 1 intermission

Schedule for Gounod "Romeo and Juliet" tragic opera in three parts 2022

Composer: Charles Francois Gounod

Orchestra: Symphony Orchestra of the "New Opera" Theatre

Opera in 2 act

Performed in French with Russian surtitles

Premiere of this production: 29 November 2014

One of Gounod’s best operas Roméo et Juliette (1867) has become one of the most successful adaptations of the Shakespeare tragedy.


The opera focuses on “drama through lyricism” (Mikhail Muginstein): the feud of the families becomes a background for the love story. The drama is based on the monologues and four brilliants duets of the main characters which reveal the story of their relations. It was Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, following his Faust, that established a new genre in the late 19th-century opera, called drame lyrique. In Russia this opera has been rarely staged. One of the milestones was the production of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1941 and its revival in 1945, both times starring the best Russian Romeo, Sergey Lemeshev.

The Novaya Opera’s present production, the first in 40 years, has been directed by French director and designer Arnaud Bernard. He is known to the Russian audience for his productions in the Mikhailovsky Theatre (Halevy’s La Juive in 2010 and Puccini’s La bohème in 2011, nominated for the Golden Mask Russian Theatrical Award). The Music Director is the Novaya Opera’s guest conductor Fabio Mastrangelo. On January 17, 2014 he conducted the concert performance of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette as part of the Epiphany Festival at Novaya Opera.

Arnaud Bernard, director and designer of the production:

" Roméo et Juliette is an opera that I know well and love a lot. For years it has been one of the compositions most congenial to me. It is very powerful dramatically. Gounod’s libretto compares favourably with Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi which is based on the same plot. Gounod is very faithful to Shakespeare’s text; his adaptation of the play is very precise. The libretto and Gounod’ music have the cruelty that you can feel in the Shakespeare play. I aim my production to restore and reveal this cruelty.

In all my productions I try to establish connection with the music to make the show look natural and spontaneous. I am first of all a musician and secondly a director. And I think what I do is equally related to both music and theatre. Everything comes from music.

The Novaya Opera’s production is my third staging of Roméo et Juliette. Its peculiarity lies in its aesthetics. I want to make the audience understand Roméo and Juliette’s incredible love, which is impossible amidst hatred and cruelty. In 1999, my Chicago production had so many details in the sets that the spectators became lost. My second production was more laconic and focused on the actors. I intend to do the same here but with more vibrant and poetic sets.”

Fabio Mastrangelo, conductor of the production:

“All music has its difficulties. There is technically difficult music (Rossini for example). Or there are very complicated singers’ parts (for example, tenor roles like Herman or Othello) which require a wide vocal range and dynamic balance. The difficulties in Gounod’s opera are completely different. I believe that the singers performing Roméo and Juliette have to be almost virtually in love with each other. Otherwise the story will not be credible. Another difficulty is that in the story Juliet is only 14. And the feelings of a teenager are hundred times more intense than those of an adult. That is why the soloist singing this part has to combine her vocal skills with a special psychological approach to the role to portray the tender age. And the task of the director and me is to help our singers. I will do my best to help them communicate this beautiful story to the audience.”



Synopsis
Act I

The storyteller decides to devise a new story for children and adults. His helper, nicknamed Ptashka, tidies their little planet and wards off uninvited guests.
The story of Cinderella, who remains faithful even when she falls on hard times, intrigues Ptashka. To help fire the storyteller’s imagination she agrees to become Cinderella, not least because he promises her a magical reward for playing the part.

The fairytale begins. Cinderella is straight away drawn into a heated row with her new stepfamily. The wicked stepmother and Cinderella’s two ugly stepsisters ensnare her in their tentacles.
The storyteller himself brings round the invitations to the handsome prince’s ball, but not one of them reaches Cinderella.
The wicked stepmother and her daughters are in a hurry to get ready for the ball and hire the most fashionable dance teacher on the planet to teach them the latest steps and airs and graces.
After seeing off her relatives, Cinderella finds consolation for her sadness in the company of her new friends.

The storyteller has not forgotten Cinderella. He asks the little fairies and crows who have settled on his planet to put right the oversight and to dress her for the ball. But he warns her that his magic powers are not unlimited and at five to midnight Cinderella must leave the handsome prince’s palace.

Act II

Cinderella cannot bring herself to make an entrance. She is ready to go back home on her pumpkin, but suddenly the doors of the ballroom open of their own accord in front of her.
Her stepmother and stepsisters are engaged in trying to seduce the handsome prince’s influential friends, but are unable to make a good impression: the stepmother because she has had too much champagne to drink, and the sisters because they are so inept.
At one moment the stepmother almost recognises the mysterious unknown female guest… But thanks to her slow reactions, the storyteller is able to distract her attention in time.

The handsome prince rushes in like a fiery comet. But because of all the court ceremony and guests trying to get the prince’s attention, he is unable to find out who the unknown girl is who has caught his eye.
But the storyteller has foreseen this. He serves everyone for dessert oranges, which have evidently been laced with a magic potion, and many of the guests lose their mind and can no longer even tell where they are.
The handsome prince and Cinderella find an opportunity to go off together on their own.

But of course Cinderella forgets the storyteller’s side of the bargain. As the clock is striking midnight she runs out of the palace in horror and one of her slippers comes off on the stairs.

Act III

The handsome prince is about to take leave of his senses. He demands that all his friends search out Cinderella, but not one foot is petite enough to fit the slipper.
The prince even sends them to another galaxy to unapproachable and revered figures such as silent cinema star the Blue Angel and a world-famous opera Diva. But on seeing each of these goddesses he is haunted by the face of Cinderella.

Still reeling from the effects of the oranges, the stepmother and her daughters return home from the ball. They are breathing fire and ready to fly at each other.
This time Cinderella is no longer ready to pull them apart and to bear all their abuse and insults. She firmly decides to give up her role in this fairytal …but at that moment the prince is brought in, virtually lifeless and stricken with despair.

Unable to look at another foot, he asks to be taken back to the palace as quickly as possible, but suddenly Cinderella appears before him.
The prince is again close to taking leave of his senses, but this time out of happiness. "It is to be a marriage made in heaven, " caw the crows who, now replete and content, turn out to be not so nasty after all.

Cinderella’s fairytale existence continues. The storyteller thanks her for her patience and for playing her part and grants the prince her hand in marriage. They both realise that they will never see each other again.




Schedule for Gounod "Romeo and Juliet" tragic opera in three parts 2022


Charles Gounod "Romeo and Juliet" (tragic opera in three parts) - Novaya Opera
 
About This Video
00:57
One of Gounod’s best operas Roméo et Juliette (1867) has become one of the most successful adaptations of the Shakespeare tragedy.


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