Program Notes
PROGRAM NOTES
Notes on the Performance Version
By Michael Capasso
The performance you are about to see represents my feelings about the opera, Roméo et Juliette. Gounod wrote Roméo et Juliette in the French Grand Opera tradition, complete with a chorus opening the production, a “pants” role, a ballet, etc. The opera has been through many changes over the years. There is the original version, the opéra version, the combined version, and almost everything in between. In fact, in several places the vocal score and the conductor’s score do not agree.
So here we have the most famous love story of all time in its most famous operatic setting (West Side Story notwithstanding), which despite its shortcomings, is still a production filled with beautiful music. What do you do? As an opera company we feel compelled to present it, but what about the dramatic problems in this story written by an Englishman about an Italian family, loosely adapted by Frenchmen to conform to the traditions of the opera in their country. The result is an evening that it is clearly only based upon the Shakespeare. The opera takes several liberties with the story--characters and situations are added--resulting, in my opinion, in a long, 3½-hour, dramatically stilted evening.
Why not try to bring a fresh look to the piece? After all, we have the precedent of several “versions” already. The young and energetic cast we have assembled for this production is capable of bringing you an exciting evening of music theatre. They have wonderful voices (more than able to sing all the music I cut), and they look their parts
This new Dicapo version is created to present the opera in a way that strips away many conventions and situations that do not exist in the play and actually brings the opera closer to Shakespeare. Alas, some very beautiful music written for this opera will not be heard tonight. To the purist, I offer my sincere apology. Two of the most famous arias are cut, along with many, many minutes of chorus and, I am not sorry to say, there will be no ballet tonight. Nevertheless I hope you enjoy the performance.
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