Met Opera: Diana Damrau Sings in Roméo et Juliette

On Saturday afternoon, I walked down to the Met Opera to hear the new production of Roméo et Juliette.  I'd seen this work several times in the 1980's when the great tenor Alfredo Kraus fairly owned the role of Roméo and I felt a strong sense of nostalgia as I prepared to hear a new generation of singers take over the familiar roles.

It's difficult to realize today, so greatly have times changed, that Charles Gounod was one of the nineteenth century's most successful opera composers and his Faust the most popular work in the repertoire.  It was the first opera staged at the Met and is still the house's eighth most frequently performed.  Faust premiered in 1859 at the Théâtre Lyrique and its director, Léon Carvalho, one of the more colorful impresarios of his day, was forever after seeking from Gounod another success of the same magnitude.  At first he was disappointed in his hopes as Gounod turned out three pieces that failed badly, but Carvalho never lost faith and eventually gave Gounod the commission for Roméo et Juliette.  Leaving nothing to chance, Carvalho once again chose the team of Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, who had collaborated on Faust, to write the libretto.  They wisely chose to follow the plot of Shakespeare's play as closely as possible (though they did change the ending to give the lovers a final duet).  Carvalho's wife Marie Caroline Miolan-Carvalho who had played the original Marguerite was assigned the role of Juliette.  The formula worked and the new opera became the rage of Paris.

Listening to the music, it's easy to understand the appeal that Gounod's music exerted over his audience.  It has a charm that brings this classic love story vividly to life.  At tragic points, Gounod cannily recalls themes from happier moments.  And some of the arias are as beautiful and touching as any in the repertoire.  Yet one has only to hear the chorus that opens the opera to understand the composer's limits.  It simply hasn't the dramatic sweep of a Verdi chorus.  In short, while thoroughly pleasing, Gounod's music is lacking in the depth and intensity that distinguishes a great work of art.

Certainly, Saturday's performance was highly enjoyable.  The conductor was Gianandrea Noseda whom I had heard in November leading the London Symphony in a performance of Verdi's Requiem at David Geffen Hall.  He did an excellent job here with Gounod's music as the orchestra pulled from the score all the passion of young love.  And the cast was superb.  The two leads, Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo, though hardly teenagers, displayed enough chemistry between them that the romance seemed real and vital.

The new production by Bartlett Sher had already had successful runs at Salzburg and La Scala by the time it reached the Met.  It basically consisted of one set - a large manor house that evoked the Elizabethan England of Shakespeare's day.  For unspecified reasons, though, Sher decided to move the action to the eighteenth century.  It didn't make any great difference, however, and I doubt the audience noticed the change.  The costumes were still handsome and perfectly appropriate to the action onstage.