As is the case with many classic works, the
story of Romeo and Juliet is an age old tale passed down from generation to
generation over the course of the last six hundred years. Although William
Shakespeare is the artist most closely associated with the work, the tale of
the young star-crossed lovers as we know it can be traced back to a narrative poem
written around 1562 by English poet, Arthur Brooke, but even his work was based
on a story by Italian writer, Matteo Bandello. Shakespeare stuck closely to the
storyline of Brooke’s Romeus and Juliet with the exception of the death scene
in which Juliet wakes up moments before Romeo succumbs to the poison he has
consumed. This is one of the many alterations that librettists, Jules Barbier
& Michel Carre, used for the Gounod’s operatic adaptation of Shakespeare’s
masterpiece, which premiered at the Theatre Lyrique, Paris in April of 1867.
Gounod’s Romeo et Juliet, which has
been described as “a love duet with occasional interruptions”, is his second
most popular opera next to the extremely popular Faust.
Singing the role of the young love struck
Romeo was internationally renowned tenor, Joseph
Calleja. It is important to note that this being the 4th time
hearing Mr. Calleja live, I am not the biggest fan of his voice. That is not to
say that I dislike it, but there are aspects of the innate sound of his singing
that doesn’t appeal to me. With that being said, there are many aspects of his
singing that is quite wonderful as was apparent during this performance. Mr.
Calleja consistently sang with a connected line and was at times quite
sensitive with regard to musical dynamics. The softer sounds he makes are
perhaps the most appealing aspect of his singing. Unfortunately it wasn’t
enough to win me over in his portrayal of Romeo. Mr. Calleja consistently cuts
off the ending notes of a phrase making it sound clipped and hurried. His voice
tended to go flat at times and was strained in the highest part of his register
to the point where his voice was inaudible. Matters weren’t helped by Mr.
Calleja’s less than stellar characterization of Romeo. His stage presence was
unbelievable at best which progressed to the ridiculous as he swaggered around
like a stereotypical 1950’s businessman coming home from a hard day at work.
Even with a heavy dose of suspension of disbelief, Mr. Calleja hardly embodied
youthful amour or innocent exuberance. To no fault of his own the stage
directions (which I will tackle later on) that he was given didn’t allow for
much emotional development which Mr. Calleja made worse by turning away from
Ms. Phillips’ Juliet at the times when loving eye contact was necessary to
heighten the sense of tension and desire.
My feelings of the latter half of the titular
characters are only slightly better than the former. Singing the role of Juliet
is American Soprano and Ryan Center alumna, Susanna Phillips. Ms. Phillips has a
naturally beautiful voice that has little problem being heard over the
orchestra. She sings with a great deal of enthusiasm and energy which was
evident by her almost inexhaustible ability to run around the stage without
being hampered in her singing. Her voice is nicely rounded, but a bit more
colorful than what I personally prefer for this role. By that I mean that Ms.
Phillips seems to lack a frontal component or ring to her voice that gives the
sound a youthful aspect, which may be the innate sound of her voice or
something more on the technical side. Ms. Phillips didn’t sing with the same
type of sensitivity with respect to dynamics as Mr. Calleja did and the top of
her range became strident at times with the highest notes coming across as a
literal scream. Ms. Phillips’ characterization wasn’t anywhere near the
ridiculous nature of Mr. Calleja’s as she consistently sang to her partner in
even when he was looking away. Needless to say that was absolutely no chemistry
between Romeo and Juliet which makes one wonder about casting decisions at the
Lyric.
Singing the role of Friar Laurence was
American bass-baritone and another Ryan Center alumna, Christian Van Horn. Mr. Van Horn
sang with a wonderfully round tone, depth of sound, musical sensitivity, and a
legato line. As in the past, he let his singing bring out the character as his
acting was refreshingly subtle. I look forward to hearing more of Mr. Van
Horn’s singing and predict that within the next 5 years he will take off the
baritone suffix to his vocal description as his voice continues to darken.
Singing the role of Juliet’s father, Lord
Capulet, was American bass-baritone Philip Horst. The
role of Lord Capulet is a bit one-dimensional in scope, but Mr. Horst avoided
‘spicing’ up his portrayal and let his incredibly resonant voice do the
talking. His first act aria was sung in a rather straightforward manner with
little musical dynamics as was most of his singing.
American
baritone Joshua Hopkins sang the role
of Mercutio with spirit and energy. The baritone’s taxing aria, Mab, la reine des mensonges, was
sung with musicality and energetic personality. Mr. Hopkins lyric baritone
could easily be heard and his voice balanced throughout his entire range. The
aria, which is set early in the opera, gives little opportunity for the singer
to rest and breath as the vocal line is concentrated throughout the entire
piece, which seemed to be of no difficulty for Mr. Hopkins.
Singing the
pants role of Stephano, in her Lyric Opera debut, was French mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa.
The comprimario role has little to do for the first half of the opera, but he
becomes the catalyst for the bloody duel between Mercutio and Tybalt. Ms.
Crebassa has a beautiful and bright tone with a well-balanced color and depth
that fits perfectly for these types of mezzo roles. Her singing was light and
agile and projected well given the size of the orchestra. Her acting leaned on
the seemingly butch side which came across as a bit kitsch unnecessary.
The remaining supporting roles were sung
mostly by Ryan Center members or alumna with the exceptions of Deborah Nansteel
in the role of Gertrude and Jason Slayden as Tybalt. A voice that has
repeatedly stood out to my ears has been that of Ryan Center member, Baritone
Anthony Clark Evans whose voice, although not incredibly big, is round, dark,
and nicely balanced throughout his entire range. Mr. Evans sings in a nicely
connected legato line and seems at ease on the stage.
The orchestra was led by Maestro Emmanuel Villaume who appeared to
be not only in control of the orchestra, but consistently in contact with the
singers which was evident in the balance in volume between the stage and pit.
The Lyric Opera Chorus under the direction of Michael Black sounded wonderful
which should come as no surprise.
The dark 15th
century sets of Michael Yeargan and period appropriate costume designs of
Catherine Zuber were again down stated and tastefully down as compared with
this year’s season opener of Le Nozze di
Figaro. Unfortunately the positive aspects of this production were not able
to outweigh the direction Bartlett
Sher in his Lyric Opera debut. The blocking and stage directions were at
best manic which continuously progressed to the ridiculous. Whether it was a
directorial decision or a stylistic choice by Mr. Calleja, Romeo was
consistently singing to the audience, with Juliet at his back rather than
looking at her in tender moments. This practice was confusing and annoying to
say the least. Mr. Sher had the opposing Montagues and Capulets chasing each
other off and on stage like it was the Benny Hill Show. I expected to hear the
carnival horn sounds to be played at any moment whenever the band of dueling
marauders appeared on stage. Mr. Sher also had Susanna Phillips’ Juliet
constantly flitting around the stage as if she were the prima ballerina in the
Nutcracker. The constant physical activity was a major distraction from, not
only the singing, but the true purpose of the story. It became nearly
hysterical in the 3rd act when Mr. Calleja’s Romeo, after having
killed Tybalt, storms in to Juliet’s bedroom with the angry bravado of Clint
Eastwood in a spaghetti western and throws his jacket to the ground. Given that
Rome has just killed his sworn enemy, would it be smart of him to waltz in to
the bedroom of that same family’s home without care of being found out? The
directorial vision of Mr. Sher seemed to highlight operatic stereotypes in a
negative way rather than diminish their impact with the final scene being the
perfect example.
Gounod, having changed the way that Romeo and
Juliet perish, did no favors for operatic deaths, but Mr. Sher made it worse.
He has Romeo walking around almost carefree after having drunk a vial of
poison, singing sweet nothings to Juliet who has just awoke from her death like
sleep. After ten minutes of looking to their future, Romeo suddenly drops to
the ground, unable to stand due to the effects of the poison. He still manages
to prop himself up and crawl around, even supporting Juliet’s weight in his
arms. When the two characters finally croak, Juliet, who has just stabbed
herself, not only shows no signs of a bloody wound, but dies within minutes.
This whole farce could have been staged in such a way that dramatic irony and
subtext would have spoken volumes while saving the audience from the ridiculous
direction of Mr. Sher.
Needless to say, the last production of the
season, like the first, was more than a little disappointing in large part due
to the unrestrained and unfocused vision of directors making their Lyric Opera
debuts. Perhaps it would’ve done them some good to stick to the core of what
makes opera great rather than ‘trying’ to direct.
