Music

Romantic opera at its best
Opera in five acts, by Charles Gounod
Words by Barbier and Carrè, after the tragedy by Shakespeare.

Romeo and Juliet fall passionately in love, but their families are sworn enemies. The lovers marry in secret before Romeo kills Juliet’s cousin Tybalt in a fight and is banished from the city.

Juliet’s family arrange for her to marry Court Paris. To escape, Juliet takes a potion that makes her appear lifeless. Romeo does not receive the message explaining her plan; thinking her dead, he goes to her tomb and kills himself. She wakes, sees Romeo’s corpse and stabs herself.

Roméo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet), one of the world’s most celebrated love stories, is staged through Gounod’s romantic music. Roméo et Juliette is representative of Gounod’s operas. It is also one of the most successful adaptations of the Shakespeare tragedy.

This production of Roméo et Juliette performed at Le French May Art Festival 2016 is directed by French director and designer Arnaud Bernard, and performed by successful young French opera singers Vannina Santoni, soprano, who sings Juliette, and Sébastien Guèze, tenor, singing Roméo, along with other international and local talents, and Opera Hong Kong Chorus. French maestro conductor Benjamin Pionnier will lead Fujian Symphony Orchestra to provide accompaniment to Gounod’s score.

The opera in five acts is sung to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. The tender intimacy and intense emotions are personified unprecedentedly then through four iconic love duets for soprano and tenor and powerful music for the chorus and orchestra.