United States Gounod, Roméo et Juliette: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of LA Opera / Domingo Hindoyan (conductor). Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, 10.11.2024. (JRo)
Production:
Original production – Ian Judge
Director/choreographer – Kitty McNamee
Sets – John Gunter
Costumes – Tim Goodchild
Lighting – Duane Schuler
Fight director – Andrew Kenneth Moss
Intimacy director – Sara E. Widzer
Chorus director – Jeremy Frank
Cast:
Romeo – Duke Kim
Juliet – Amina Edris
Mercutio – Justin Austin
Capulet – Craig Colclough
Friar Laurence – Wei Wu
Gertrude – Margaret Gawrysiak
Tybalt – Yuntong Han
Duke of Verona – Vinícius Costa
Stephano – Laura Krumm
Gregorio – Hyungjin Son
Benvolio – Nathan Bowles
Count Paris – Ryan Wolfe
Italian opera dominates in opera houses worldwide, but nineteenth-century French opera from Offenbach to Bizet has unerring charm and vitality too. For romance, poetry and beautiful melodies, Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet deserves its place in the canon.
The young and attractive Amina Edris and Duke Kim were ideally cast as Shakespeare’s sweethearts. Kim, with his velvety tenor, sang the role with an effortlessness that brought out the richness and poignancy of Gounod’s music, while the clarity of his French pronunciation enhanced the poetry of the text. Edris’s Juliet was the perfect mix of steely determination and romantic abandon, mirrored in a voice that ranged from warm and shaded in the middle registers to shimmering and birdlike in the top notes.
The LA Opera Orchestra was in the assured hands of Domingo Hindoyan. Chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and a guest conductor worldwide, Hindoyan drew the best from the orchestra, from the solemnity of the Prologue to the verve of Juliet’s waltz to the pounding rhythms of the fight scene. But it is in the sweeping Romanticism of the love duets that Gounod’s music scales the heights, and here the orchestra was at its finest.
The production, which originated in Los Angeles in 2005, is set in Gounod’s era of the mid-nineteenth century. Hoop skirts, tuxedos and military regalia were on display. The stage was filled with an airy, three-story set with a pattern of arches, doorways, windows, staircases and ladders, akin to a theatrical jungle gym. Movable sections allowed for shifts in scenes, and a traditional chapel, complete with a Renaissance style painting, was wheeled in for the couple’s wedding. The production was handsomely lit by Duane Schuler – a key ingredient with so many architectural elements to accommodate.
Edris as Juliet burst into vivid life with the lyrical waltz, ‘Je veux vivre’, singing of the tender dream of youth. At its extreme opposite, the Poison aria was sung with the passion of a woman who contemplates her possible death, committing to drink the potion with the determination of a soldier going into battle.
Kim’s artistry was on full display in the beautiful aria, ‘Ah! Lève-toi soleil’, as he sang in the shadow of Juliet’s balcony; and in the haunting prelude of Act V when he confronted the tomb of the Capulets and his presumably dead wife. The lovers have four duets, and each was sung with incomparable grace – especially the balcony scene, with its gentle sweetness, and the lingering and impassioned adieux of Act IV.
As Mercutio, Justin Austin was an attractive stage presence. The gossamer Queen Mab aria is notoriously difficult for the baritone voice, and Austin struggled a bit to keep pace with the orchestra. He was assured in the more legato passages and was compelling in Act III’s fight scene. Craig Colclough’s seasoned and nimble bass-baritone was at the service of his role as Lord Capulet. Colclough was a delightful Figaro here in 2023’s The Marriage of Figaro, and I only wish he had brought less charm and more fire to his Capulet.
Wei Wu had the gravitas of voice and manner as Friar Laurence, and Margaret Gawrysiak was a believable and doting nurse. They were notable in the final quartet of Act III’s wedding scene when, joined by Edris and Kim, they sang, ‘O pur bonheur’.
Stephano, Romeo’s page, is the opera’s only addition to Shakespeare’s cast of characters. It is a trouser role with one memorable aria, the ditty ‘Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle’. Laura Krumm’s rendition was more spice than sweetness but effective nevertheless.
The chorus has a central role in the opera as commentators on the unfolding action in the Prologue and as revelers in the ballroom. The opera takes its cue from the opening of Shakespeare’s play, and it is the chorus that sets the tone for the tragedy to follow. As usual, the LAO Chorus was in full command, and it was perplexing when they neglected to appear for the curtain call.
But the night belonged to Edris and Kim, and as they rushed onstage for their bows, they joyously embraced, acknowledging their perfect pairing as the star-crossed lovers.
Jane Rosenberg