Metropolitan Opera – Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette. January 17, 2017.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat B6, $110.50).

Story.  The plot essentially follows that of the play, with a notable exception at the end.  When Romeo breaks into the Capulet family tomb and thinks that Juliet is dead, he takes a poison.  Before he dies, Juliet wakes up and the reminisce about their lives together.  After Romeo dies, Juliet stabs herself.

Conductor – Gianandrea Noseda; Tybalt – Diego Silva, Paris – David Crawford, Capulet – Laurent Naouri, Juliette – Diana Damrau, Mercutio – Elliot Madore, Romeo – Vittorio Grigolo, Gertrude – Kiana Montague, Gregorio – Jeongcheol Cha, Frere Laurent – Mikhail Petrenko, Stephano – Virginie Verrez, Benvolio – Tony Stevenson, The Duke of Verona – Oren Gradus.

This is the second of three blog entries I plan to do this (late) evening, so it will be a rush job.  The caveat here is I was not feeling well this day.  The story of Romeo and Juliet is relatively simple, and undoubtedly the opera’s plot is a simplified version, so there is no reason I couldn’t follow the plot along.  But I had some trouble with it, my condition either caused me to have lapses in attention, or simply made me a bit groggy.  Anne told me it was straightforward.  I still managed to enjoy it though.

First about the set.  This is a new production, and Anne told me she read somewhere it was elaborate, or something to that effect.  I beg to differ.  The scenes all revolve around a courtyard with one huge column, and a platform in the middle.  By giving it different accents, the audience is to think of them as sets for different scenes.  For example, when draped with a huge piece of cloth, it was the “honeymoon suite” (for lack of a better term.)  By bringing in some biers and lowering a gate, it was the Capulet family crypt.  And by crunching the white sheet around Juliet, it was supposed to be a wedding gown (that, actually was quite clever.)  Nothing wrong with the set, just don’t call it elaborate.  The other point made was the time was updated to the 18^th century.  That may explain some of the costumes, but I’m not sure if it added anything to the overall effect.

Even in my compromised state, I really appreciated the singing.  While I heard Grigolo only once before (opposite Damrau in Massenet’s Manon), I am not surprised at all at how well he did.  His voice reached our balcony seats clearly, and he portrayed a very believable Romeo.  The role required quite a bit of agility, at one point he had to climb up the balcony part way, not an easy deed even with hand- and footholds.  Damrau did well, and certainly had a wider emotional range in her singing, but her voice was weaker, and often overshadowed by Grigolo’s in the several duets they sang together.  Sometimes I wonder if the stars try to compensate for each other’s weaknesses, or they each think he/she is the show; I got a bit of the latter this evening.

There are many nice solos and duets in this opera, yet the only one I can claim some familiarity with is the early solo “je veux vivre.”  If I had had the energy to do the preparation before the performance, I would have enjoyed the other solos and ensembles more, and appreciated the description in the Playbill, which was quite fascinating.  Perhaps next time.

Usually when I list the artists I would record only a few of the roles.  For today I listed everyone who appeared in the Playbill since I didn’t find one weak voice among them. Honestly, I don’t remember what lines – say – Benvolio sang, but whatever they were, they were well-done.  When I saw Virginie Verrez singing Stefano my first reaction was another of those female voices singing a young man’s role, but I was impressed with how well she did in Act III.

Curtain call.  Noseda flanked by Grigolo and Damrau.

The Playbill describes Gounod’s use of the orchestra to assist the voice in its mission to communicate ‘truth.’  That certainly was the case here.  The orchestra under Noseda performed very well.

If I had been more physically and mentally aware …

The New York Times review is based on the New Year’s Eve performance.  The reviewer had nothing but praises for the singers, complained a bit about the set, and scratched his head about the need to update the setting.  He is so taken with this Damrau/Grigolo duo that he ends the review with the sentence “What lies ahead for them at the Met? I’m ure Peter Gelb is already on the case.”

We drove in and had a simple meal at Europan.  Traffic was light both ways.