Category: Opera in five acts
Language: French
Running times: 3h (including intermission)
Premiered: 1867, Théâtre-Lyrique, Paris
New production: 13 December 2021, Opéra-Comique
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
Director of Artistic Coordination, Production and Development
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
Productions catalogue
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