Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 3 May 2022 - Roméo et Juliette | GoComGo.com

Roméo et Juliette

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Auditorium, Florence, Italy
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Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Florence, Italy
Starts at: 20:00
Acts: 2
Intervals: 1
Duration: 3h 5min

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Festival

Festival Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 2022

Six operas, 10 symphonic appointments and also a title for children, Ayda: the 84th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival presented the program of its new edition which was held from April 12 to July 15, 2022.

Overview

New staging

The project to create a work on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet accompanied Charles Gounod from a young age and for over twenty years. After winning the “Prix de Rome” in 1839, Gounod began composing an opera on the libretto of Felice Romani I Capuleti e i Montecchi (the same one set to music by Bellini) but without completing it. In 1865, at the height of his stylistic maturity, the composer returned to the Shakespearean drama by entrusting the writing of the libretto to Jules Barbier and Michel Carrè, trusted collaborators who were already authors of Faust. So two years later, on April 27, 1867, Roméo et Juliette debuted at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, achieving immediate success. Divided into five acts, Roméo et Juliette presents some substantial differences compared to the original source, such as the addition of the character of Stéphano, page of Roméo interpreted en travesti from a female voice, and the scene of Juliette's awakening at the end of the opera, which allows for a final heartbreaking duet with the dying lover. But what stands out most in the general structure of the work is the absolute supremacy of the theme of love on the theme of rivalry between families, which in the Shakespearean source is instead an element of equal importance. As the only engine of the opera, the love between the two young and unfortunate protagonists determines in fact every dramaturgical choice of Gounod, from the highly emotional arias to the four symmetrical duets (one for each act except the third) that make up the backbone of the drama and which, becoming more and more complex from a formal and dramatic point of view, follow the psychological evolution of the two protagonists.

History
Premiere of this production: 27 April 1867, Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Lyrique Impérial du Châtelet), Paris

Roméo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet) is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Lyrique Impérial du Châtelet), Paris on 27 April 1867. This opera is notable for the series of four duets for the main characters and the waltz song "Je veux vivre" for the soprano.

Synopsis

The libretto follows the story of Shakespeare's play.

Act 1

Overture prologue:

A short chorus sets the scene of the rival families in Verona.

A masked ball in the Capulets’ palace

Tybalt talks to Pâris about Juliette, who appears with her father. Roméo, Mercutio, Benvolio and their friends enter, disguised, and Mercutio sings a ballad about Queen Mab, after which Juliette sings a joyful waltz song. The first meeting between Roméo and Juliette takes place, and they fall in love. But Tybalt re-appears and suspects that the hastily re-masked Roméo is his rival. While Tybalt wants immediate revenge, Capulet orders that the ball continue.

Act 2

The Capulets' garden

After Roméo's page Stephano has helped his master gain access, he reveals the two young lovers exchanging their vows of love.

Act 3

Press illustration of Act 3, scene 2, as staged in the original production
Scene 1: Laurent's cell

Roméo and Juliette, accompanied by Gertrude, go to the cell, and the wedding takes place. Laurent hopes that reconciliation between the houses of the Montagus and the Capulets may thus take place.

Scene 2: a street near Capulet's palace

Stephano sings to attract the occupants into the street. Gregoire and Stephano skirmish as men from each family appear. The duel is first between Tybalt and Mercutio, who falls dead, and then between Roméo, determined to avenge his comrade, and Tybalt. Tybalt is killed by Roméo, who is banished by the Duke.

Act 4

Juliet's room at dawn

Roméo and Juliette are together and, after a long duet, Roméo departs for exile. Juliette's father comes to remind her of Tybalt's dying wish for Juliette to marry Count Pâris. The friar gives Juliette a draught which will cause her to sleep, so as to appear as if dead and, after being laid in the family tomb, it is planned that Roméo will awaken her and take her away. 

Act 5

Juliet's tomb

Roméo breaks into the tomb after having taken poison because he believes that Juliette is dead. When she awakes from the friar’s potion, the lovers' last duet is heard before the poison takes effect on Roméo. As her bridegroom weakens Juliette stabs herself, to be united with her lover in death.

Venue Info

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino - Florence
Location   Piazza Vittorio Gui, 1

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is a major opera house in Florence and the main concert venue of the international festival "Maggio Musicale Fiorentino".

The white marble veined with green of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, the brickwork of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore and finally the dazzling gold of the precious paintings that have made the city of Tuscany one of the world capitals of art: the materials and colors of the Renaissance they meet at the Teatro del Maggio to celebrate the power of music, and the enchantment of melodrama, right in the city where this exceptional form of theater was born. Conceived by the architect Paolo Desideri of the ABDR studio, the “new house” of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino rises at the meeting point between the monumental center and the Parco delle Cascine, the green lung of the city.

An important connective function also reaffirmed by the vast system of open areas that can be reached through the two areas of the city and the different volumes of the building. Moreover, the proximity to the Stazione Leopolda helps to create a cultural pole of European importance.

Above a sort of wide base, a sloping skirting, there are the large music rooms and the enigmatic volume of the 35 meter high stage tower. Three rooms, which can work simultaneously: the 1800-seat opera theater, distributed between the stalls, boxes and gallery, an outdoor 2000-seat auditorium and finally an auditorium, dedicated to maestro Zubin Mehta, which varies its capacity from 500 to 1000 spectators.

As in a great musical instrument, the walls of the main hall are covered in pear wood to guarantee perfect acoustics. A dense network of thin copper chains also helps to transport the sound without distortion. The stage has a depth doubled compared to the average of Italian and foreign theaters and, thanks to its flexibility, is able to accommodate in its side pockets up to two sets ready to be moved during the intervals. The Cavea is positioned in the theater’s roof to complement and conclude the extensive system of squares, terraces and belvedere.

Its usability is therefore not limited to representations only, but is extended to the entire day to turn its stone steps into real urban salons. Inaugurated on December 21, 2011 with the Ninth Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven directed by Zubin Mehta, the Teatro del Maggio is the permanent venue of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and has already hosted Masters such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Gustavo Dudamel , Daniele Gatti, Fabio Luisi, leading groups such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the National de France Orchestras. Among the many artists who performed there are Alessandra Ferri, Mariella Devia, Sumi Jo, Anja Harteros, Aldo Ciccolini, Uto Ughi, Maurizio Pollini, Krystian Zimerman, Gregory Kunde, Ambrogio Maestri. In 2014 he received the National Award for the best architectural work made in Italy in the last 5 years.

Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Florence, Italy
Starts at: 20:00
Acts: 2
Intervals: 1
Duration: 3h 5min
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