Premiere: Théâtre Lyrique, Paris, 1867
Roméo et Juliette, perhaps the most enduringly successful of the many operatic settings of the world’s consummate love story, is sophisticated, intelligently wrought, and ravishingly beautiful. It is an excellent example of French Romanticism, a tradition that values subtlety, sensuality, and graceful vocal delivery over showy effects, and the music provides a powerful dramatic vehicle worthy of its Shakespearean source. In the opera there is a slight shift of focus away from the word games of the original play and a greater focus on the two lovers, who are given four irresistible duets. Some readjustment of plot was necessary to allow for this (the lovers have a brief final reunion in the tomb scene, for example, which does not appear in the original). But audiences have been well compensated for these minor infractions against Shakespeare.

The Setting
Italy, during Shakespeare’s lifetime, was a land of many small city-states in constant warfare with one another. The blood feud between families that is at the core of this story, set in the ancient city of Verona, was a central feature of Italian political and social life during this time. Yet this same war-scarred land was also the cradle of the Renaissance, with its astounding explosion of art and science. The image that this mythical Verona evokes, then, is a beautiful but dangerous world where poetry or violence might erupt at any moment.

The Creators
Frenchman Charles Gounod (1818–1893) was celebrated as a composer of operas and religious music, and his two most successful operas, Roméo et Juliette and Faust, continue to seduce audiences with their sumptuous, unpretentious style, which allows singers to reveal their artistry in a direct and dazzling way. Jules Barbier (1825–1901) and Michel Carré (1821–1872) were the most highly regarded librettists of their time in France, providing the libretti for many other successful works, including Faust and Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann. The plays of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) have provided an abundance of material for such diverse opera composers as Giuseppe Verdi, Benjamin Britten, Gioachino Rossini, Samuel Barber, Thomas Adès, and even Richard Wagner (whose youthful work from 1836, Das Liebesverbot, is based on Measure for Measure).

The Music
Gounod infuses this classic drama with an elegant musical aura that reflects the soaring poetry of the original. A solo flute sets a fragile and painfully beautiful mood in the prelude to the bedroom scene in Act IV. When Gounod explores the darker and more violent side of the story, his music creates drama without resorting to bombast. A reserved melancholy creates all the necessary tension. This is apparent in the striking opening chorus and especially in the arresting ensemble “Ce jour de deuil” in Act III, when the various characters’ destinies intersect in a tragic instant. For the story’s more light-hearted moments, Gounod supplied the sort of buoyant melodies that made his Faust a huge hit with audiences. The baritone sets an eerie and frivolous mood with his song about Queen Mab and her fairy world of dreams, “Mab, reine des mensonges,” early in Act I. Shortly after, the heroine takes the stage with the giddy coloratura gem “Je veux vivre.” Moments such as these add musical and dramatic texture to the tragedy, admired for its contrast of light and dark. The focus of the story, however, remains the two lovers.

Information provided by The Met Opera