Roméo et Juliette

ABOUT PERFORMANCE

Charles Gounod’s setting of the immortal story of the Verona lovers has enjoyed ever-increasing popularity. For the very first time in the history of opera, four duets of the main protagonists instead of the conventional two love duets occur: their first encounter at the Capulets’ ball, the balcony scene, Roméo and Juliette’s wedding night, and the death scene. The literature on Gounod’s love songs often contains a statement along the lines that the score of Roméo et Juliette is nothing but a “now and then interrupted love duet.” 

Owing to Bedřich Smetana, a great champion of Gounod’s music, Roméo et Juliette got to Prague merely two years after its world premiere, and its Czech staging at the New Town Theatre, with Smetana conducting, was the very first in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The National Theatre first presented the opera on 6 January 1886. Our most recent production (1994–2000) was created by the Slovak director Jozef Bednárik. The new production at the State Opera was prepared by the eminent Italian conductor Marco Guidarini and the Slovak director Sláva Daubnerová, who recently dazzled the Prague audience with her treatment of Shostakovich’s Orango and Antiformalist Rayok.

In French, with Czech and English subtitles.

CAST AND CREATIVE

Julie - Jana Sibera
Romeo - Petr Nekoranec
Bratr Lorenzo - Roman Vocel
Mercutio - Lukáš Bařák
Stéphano - Arnheiður Eiríksdóttir
Tybalt - Daniel Matoušek

and more.

State Opera Orchestra

State Opera Chorus

Libretto: Jules Barbier, Michel Carré

Musical preparation: Marco Guidarini

Conductor: Andrij Jurkevyč, Richard Hein

 Stage director: Sláva Daubnerová