Roméo et Juliette, l'opéra
Warning: I am only beginning to study opera music, so every opera is a huge discovery for me. My ramblings here will be, I suspect, incoherent, perhaps naive or even annoying, as I am not a professional. I have hardly heard 10 operas in all my life. I've fallen in love with the opera genre quite recently, and now I just try to express my (mad) emotions.
Now I’m through with the 3 audio discs of Romeo et Juliette, and I think I should say something about it…
I haven't seen the DVD with the same opera yet, so my impressions were formed only by the music. I was not disappointed. The music is great, at times lyrical, at times tempestuous, but always light and always, it seemed to me, so française.
The beginning of the first act (Le bal chez les Capulets) owns my heart. Forever. The melody is so merry and bright, and one can remember it at once. I listened to it several times, imagining myself dancing to the sound of this melody (it's a waltz, after all). I loved the overture, too, then Juliet's arietta, the chorus in Act 3 (Jour de deuil), the love duo about the Alouette and the end, of course.
The booklet said Gounod was ''the composer of love''. Well yes. But for me he will be the author of light, merry, bright melodies, such as L'heure s'envole from this opera, the overture from Mireille or Ainsi que la brise légère from Faust. Gounod had a genius for it. I discovered myself yesterday humming the melody of that song about the turtle dove (which I didn't pay much attention to when listening to the opera) and understood I knew it by heart without learning! :))) Such memorable music, really. It just comes into your head and stays there.
The plot - in the end it was a big surprise for me that the star-crossed lovers had a conversation before they died!
And well, the singers. Roberto Alagna was good, of course! And Angela Georghiu sounded a bit shrill at times. Perhaps only to my ears, but it seemed that she was singing okay, but when she ''added volume'' and took high notes, her voice was… not quite as good as generally. Strange, I remember the same singers in Tosca, and they delighted me both, I loved Angela's voice. Tosca is a soprano part as well… It seems that the version of Tosca I had was recorded later. I'd like to check it at once, but Tosca isn't available anymore.
And I didn’t know that Alagna and Georghiu were husband and wife.
The actor on the role of Mercutio sounded very well. Tybalt was not very impressive, IMHO. Paris seemed a bit old. But those are very, very small things. All in all, I am enchanted.
And this cutie for you to have fun after reading this long post…
I adore this artist.