Production for rent: Roméo et Juliette

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Composer: Charles Gounod

Libretto: Jules Barbier and Michel Carré

 

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Category: Opera in five acts

Language: French

Running times: 3h (including intermission)

Premiered: 1867, Théâtre-Lyrique, Paris

New production: 13 December 2021, Opéra-Comique

Photo de répétition de Roméo et Juliette avec le choeur Accentus © Stefan Brion

Stage director and set designer : Eric Ruf* • Costume designer: Christian Lacroix • Lighting designer: Bertrand Couderc • Choreographer: Glyslein Lefever • Artistic collaborator: Léonidas Strapatsakis • Assisant stage director: Céline Gaudier

*honorary member of the Comédie-Française

Chrysoline Dupont

Director of Artistic Coordination, Production and Development

Phone number +33 1 70 23 00 92

In a few words

At a ball, Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight. But they live in a patriarchal and closed society, where all personal aspirations for happiness are shattered.

Concept

“This story exists above all through its fulgurating nature. It is not a question here of understanding this love, its nature and its origin but to recognize its madness. Romeo and Juliet are like gifted lovers, both knowing, intuitively and very quickly, that it has to deal with death, each playing the Orpheus of their Eurydice, in turn.”

Eric Ruf, director

Press review

“An intense Romeo and Juliet receives a standing ovation at the Opéra Comique. […] Recycling the set he designed for his Romeo and Juliet, this time by Shakespeare, at the Comédie-Française, Éric Ruf's staging is more active than inventive, based on expressive acting. In a sober renaissance décor, outraged by the passage of time, the atmosphere smells of the 1950s, proof that family struggles and love tears are ageless.”

La Croix, 16 December 2021, Emmanuelle Giuliani

 

“There is great dramatic force in this transposition of the tragedy to southern Italy and the 1950s, with high, decaying white walls bearing witness to a vanished prosperity - the nostalgia of which perhaps explains the crystallisation of hatred between two equally downtrodden families -, a dizzying balcony and a tomb inspired by the catacombs of Palermo.”

Télérama, 17 December 2021, Sophie Bourdais

 

“The direction of the actors offers a perpetual movement of the singers (the soloists and the Accentus choir) and a fluidity of the scenery, with imposing white walls that can be moved around, creating a different atmosphere in each scene. The atmosphere is that of southern Italy with its decaying facades suggesting the wealth of yesteryear, reminiscent of Ferrante Ferranti's photographic series L'esprit des ruines.”

France Télévisions Culture, 16 December 2021, Lorenzo Ciavarini Azzi

Cast

Number of Principals: 11 + 2 members of the choir
Chorus / parts (S/A/T/B): 33 (8/7/9/9)
Extras: 4 dancers

Instrumentation
10.8.6.5.3 /2.2.2.2 /4.2.3.0/3 perc, 1 timp /2 harps, 1 organ

Volume of the production
Set and props 3 containers

Other info
Last performed: June 2023, Opéra de Rouen Normandie

Coproduction: Opéra de Rouen Normandie, Washington National Opera, Bühnen Bern, Fondazione Petruzzelli e Teatri di Bari

Revival in Bern october 23-Janv 24 and in Palma de Majorque in May 2024
 

Roméo et Juliette

Charles Gounod

December 13 to 21, 2021

At a ball, Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight. But they live in a tight patriarchal society, where any personal aspiration to happiness is crushed.

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L'Opéra Comique © Stefan Brion

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