Roméo et Juliette, 2007 Photo: J. Reeder

Review: Roméo et Juliette

"A Roméo visible from the balcony”

The Star-Ledger (Ruth Bonapace)
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Too often, opera becomes a choice between intimate but uneven small-company productions or top talent showcased on a major, impersonal stage.
With Marc Verzatt's production of Charles Gounod's lush Roméo et Juliette, conducted by Steven Mosteller, the New Jersey Opera has managed to produce a first- rate production without sacrificing the emotional immediacy of Shakespeare's tragedy.

Set in the 360-seat Berlind Theatre at Princeton's McCarter Theatre Center, each facial gesture and nuance is seen from every seat in the house...

When Tybalt, sung by James Barbato, described his hatred for the Capulets during Sunday's matinee
performance, the menace in his eyes was palpable, and the singers didn't need a lot of stomping around and melodramatic motion to evoke the mood.

The setting was especially well- suited for Scott Ramsay as Romeo, whose fine acting skills exuded a
tenderness and vulnerability that might be lost on a larger stage. The tenor from Chicago sang with a warm and sonorous tone throughout most of the production....

...[As Juliette] Manon Strauss Evrard's exceptionally strong voice... filled the house with her exuberant singing...

Evrard, a winner of the 2006 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, is a young singer of enormous talent and was very convincing in scenes that called for great drama, such as her furious resolve, all alone, to drink the friar's potion, no matter how horrific the consequences.

The biggest surprise was so prano Nina Yoshida Nelson as Romeo's page Stephano, who sang her single aria with great clarity, polish and an engaging stage presence.

Mikiko Suzuki's elegant, minimalist sets – four enormous arches, a railing and a backlit Italian cypress tree in silhouette – transitioned from ballroom to garden to chapel with ease....

Roméo et Juliette, with its richly expressive score, is not performed often, especially compared to
Gounod's other masterpiece, Faust. As such, this is a chance to see this great work.

The libretto closely follows Shakespeare's drama, with one major twist. Instead of dying immediately prior to Juliette's awakening, Gounod keeps Romeo alive long enough to sing one last aria with Juliette. This ups the pathos quotient tremendously, because both young lovers realize, too late, what might have been, and it renders their simultaneous deaths all the more heartbreaking. In unison, they beg God's forgiveness for their double suicide and desperately reach out and touch each other's fingers before the final curtain.

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