Romeo et Juliette at La Monnaie

Where could the lyrical mastery of Charles Gounod – a ‘musicien de l’amour’ par excellence – come into its own more than in a passionate love story like that of Romeo and Juliet? Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name, about the forbidden love between two young people who belong to warring families, has inspired many operas, none of which have followed the original as faithfully as that of Gounod. After Faust, Gounod, the ‘emancipator of French music’, set a new standard for French opera with Romeo and Juliet: in his unique lyricism he manages to mix simplicity and poetic intensity with a highly sophisticated idiom. This work was justifiably almost as popular as Faust and one of the huge hits of 19th century French opera. Following Rossini’s Otello, Evelino Pidò will once again appear at La Monnaie for the concert performances of this masterpiece by Gounod.