Romeo & Juliet Charles Gounod
Savonlinna Opera Festival

Text is from the Savonlinna Opera Festival website.

CANADIAN(S): Carolyn Sproul, Yves Abel

Sung in French
Surtitles in Finnish and English
Duration app. 3 hours 10 minutes, 1 interval

Romeo and Juliet is a romantic French opera full of powerful emotions and music awash with love.

While Faust may be Gounod’s best-known work, Romeo and Juliet is his most cherished. It’s easy to see why. The music moves towards its climax duet by duet, developing the young lovers’ relationship towards its inevitable conclusion.

The young award-winning director Amy Lane is the Artistic Director of the Copenhagen Opera Festival. She sets the events of Shakespeare’s original tale in the hopeful late 19th century New York. The city has welcomed a massive wave of immigrants from Italy, including the Capulets, and the new arrivals, the Montagues, who arrived just 16 years ago.

The Capulets, known for their brilliant parties, organise a circus-themed New Year’s masquerade, and slipping in to the party is a disguised Romeo Montague. For Juliet Capulet, who turns 16 on that night, the world will change. The sense of danger weaves an intriguing tension accompanied by Gounod’s overflowing musical score.

TEAM
Conductor Yves Abel
Director Amy Lane
Sets and Costumes Emma Ryott
Lighting Charlie Morgan Jones
Choreography Michael Barry
Chorus master Jan Schweiger
Savonlinna Opera Festival Choir
Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra

CAST
Juliet – LISETTE OROPESA (1.7., 5.7., 12.7.), MARJUKKA TEPPONEN (3.7., 7.7., 14.7., 17.7.)
Romeo – AMITAI PATI (1.7., 5.7., 7.7.), ANTONIO POLI (3.7., 12.7., 14.7., 17.7.)
Tutustu – ANTONIO POLI (3.7., 5.7., 14.7., 17.7.)
Frère Laurent – TIMO RIIHONEN
Mercutio – KEVIN GREENLAW
Tybalt – SAM FURNESS
Stéphano – CAROLYN SPROULE
Capulet – HANNU NIEMELÄ (1., 5. JA 12.7.), ARTTU KATAJA (3., 7., 14. & 17.7.)
Gertrude – IRINA NUUTINEN
Pâris – LUKE TERENCE SCOTT
Grégorio – HENRI UUSITALO
The Duke – ARI HOSIO
Benvolio – EERO LASORLA