Romeo et Juliette - Hommes en Collants

Roméo et Juliette (Gounod) - Royal Opera House, 27 October 2010

Gentlemen of the chorus - if you're forced to don clinging tights, at least demand an Acosta-sized dance belt to sweeten the deal.

Nicolas Joël's 1994 production of Roméo et Juliette is medieval Verona as a French and Saunders sketch. It's been revived only once since - as a Gheorghiu/Alagna vehicle - but with no megastars to demand its resuscitation this time round, one has to wonder why the Royal Opera House dug it up. Devoid of psychological insight or dramatic impetus, it serves the opera poorly. Gounod's music does its best to sweep you up in the young lovers' disastrous passion; Joël simply has you sniggering at the number of knobbly knees and saggy y-fronts on display.

With the megawatt presence of Bobby and Ange sparkling at its centre, the production's deficiencies wouldn't be as obvious. Instead we got the Andy Murray of tenordom, Piotr Beczala, and squally newcomer Nino Machaidze. There's no doubt Beczala can sing with great beauty, flair and technique, and he exudes a nice-guy aura that makes you warm to him instantly. But he remains stubbornly within his means, displaying the role instead of living it, and that's not what this music needs. Uncontrollable passion demands stepping a lot closer to the edge.

Machaidze, despite her truly dreadful French, grasped the style better. But it was only in the final stretch that her vibrato narrowed enough to reveal the melody she was supposed to be singing - Je veux vivre sadly went completely to the wall. She has real presence, an unselfish chemistry with Beczala, and worked hard to show the transformation from dutiful to distraught. But a hard edge to her voice suggests the sweet Juliette is not the greatest fit for her vocally.

The rest of the cast did a sterling job, the pick being Stéphane Degout's hot-blooded Mercutio. Darren Jeffery is still not quite old enough for the roles his deep voice fits - his Capulet was well-sung but lacked a degree of gravitas. Alfie Boe was well-cast as Tybalt - I find him (for now) so much more effective in a second-string role than the leads he's taken at ENO.  Ketevan Kemoklidze, another Georgian like Machaidze, dispatched the Page's aria with stage-hogging charm. 

The best thing about the evening was the bodice-heaving gusto of the orchestra under Daniel Oren - I'm seriously tempted to make a return trip for that alone. Otherwise it might have been four hours of the operatic equivalent of watching paint dry.

 
 
 
   
  
 

 
 
 
 
 

Production photos (above): Bill Cooper for Royal Opera House

Curtain call photos (below): intermezzo.typepad.com

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Comments

[Stephen]

Beczala sounded just like Gedda by which I mean to compliment him greatly. The audience clearly loved him and cheered him to the echo. Machaidze yelled her way through with neither the grace nor the deportment needed for the role. A nasty, charmless performance in a house where the role was owned by Melba for years. I liked Boe but felt that Oren's very vocal contribution from the pit was irritating. The production looked fine from the Stalls Circle, what was wrong with it being set in the Renaissance?

[MikeG]

I'm afraid I just felt as though I was being shouted at by the leads the whole evening. At least the orchestra played well.

[PHILLY FAN]

MichaelG: Being shouted at in the opera is a currect topic in this month's issue of "Opera News." There is an article by Patrick Dillon called "Noises On". (The title may challange us to remember Michael Frayn's Broadway play of 1982 called "Noises Off!.) I encourage you to read Mr. Dillon's essay.

[Nik]

Fifth picture from the top: can you guarantee that that's not in fact Louis Balfour, presenter of 'Jazz Club' out of the Fast Show?

[Manou]

Well I am just back from Friday's performance and have booked again to see the alternative Juliette on the 17th (many many seats available...). I loved every lush note of it. I was in the Stalls Circle Side and had a grandstand view of Oren who performed the entire opera with the feeling which was missing from the stage. I worried he might cry or have a heart attack as he was so involved in the whole thing, and the orchestra played wonderfully for him.

Beczala was exactly as you describe him - he sang beautifully, with a wonderful secure tone and a ringing high C in "Lève toi soleil", but he looked for all the world like an accountant in Pinner who has a problem with his balance sheets.

Machaidze galumphed about the stage and emitted some atrocious sounds, but redeemed herself somewhat at the end - I shall be very interested to hear María Alejandres who is supposed to be the next white hope.

[Donna Anna]

I have the dvd of the production with a very young Alagna and Leontina Vaduva, who is a coltish and utterly believable Juliette. She sings with both sweetness and the desperate courage the role demands. Maybe Gheorgiu had a more erotic edge, hardly surprising, but Vaduva was captivating. Whatever happened to her?

[a mac]

Well I saw it last night and can safely reassure everyone it didn't get any better. From her bio Machaidze sings Julliette everywhere although I can't help thinking she is terribly miscast in the role.

The first outing with Vaduva and Alagna under Mackerras was frankly as good as this production ever got. Vaduva was much older when she played but still managed to look and feel younger !

From memory (which may not be always 100%) I thought the lighting was far drearier in this revival. Without two good leads the evening did tend to drag and felt every minute of 4 hours !

[liane]

I saw the opera sitting high in the Amphitheatre last Monday and was certainly not impressed by Makaidze's voice which I found in parts screaming and a bit grating. I did not like Bekzala's either because I found his high notes a bit heavy, not lyrical enough for the part he was singing. Also there was no acting. I cerainly don't regard him as one of the best tenors. I was curious to hear him since I read that he had the reputation of being one of the best tenors and was disappointed.

[HairmanWNO]

Caught Saturday's performance and left feeling mightily underwhelmed. The performance, for me, only got going in the last act - about 3 odd hours too late.

It was probably the first time since I began trotting along to ROH (a brief four years compared to many readers of this blog) that not a single one of the lead singers did anything for me. Machaidze lacked a "softness control" to her singing and Beczala, although a nice enough singer, just didn't light any fires for me. The only time I felt they clued into their singing was in their final duet - but by then I was a lost cause.

I quite liked Kemoklidze, and Jeffery - the best singers on the night for my money. But the orchestra and Oren were the highlight of the evening.

A note on the curtain calls - has someone been hitting the sherry a few weeks too early? The crowd was vanishing with the speed of Chelsea's supporters at the end of the Sunderland game yet the curtain calls carried on, and on, and on...and were still going strong when I joined the queue on the stairs.