05 Feb 2005

Star Cross'd Lovers In LA

Stale marzipan it may be, but given the appropriate set of protagonists, Charles Gounod’s ponderous 1867 adaptation of Shakespeare’s youthful tragedy still has the power to arouse the senses and engage, if not engulf, the soul. In Rolando Villazón and Anna Netrebko, the Los Angeles Opera has found doomed lovers who are as much star material as “star cross’d”. Whatever else is lacking in the first west coast production of the opera here in 18 years, the Mexican tenor and Russian soprano radiate youthful ardour, stylistic sophistication and sheer theatrical magic.

Anna NetrebkoRolando Villazón
 Photo: © Mark Kessel 2004

Roméo et Juliette, Music Center, Los Angeles

By Allan Ulrich [Financial Times]
Published: February 2 2005 02:00 | Last updated: February 2 2005 02:00

Stale marzipan it may be, but given the appropriate set of protagonists, Charles Gounod's ponderous 1867 adaptation of Shakespeare's youthful tragedy still has the power to arouse the senses and engage, if not engulf, the soul. In Rolando Villazón and Anna Netrebko, the Los Angeles Opera has found doomed lovers who are as much star material as "star cross'd". Whatever else is lacking in the first west coast production of the opera here in 18 years, the Mexican tenor and Russian soprano radiate youthful ardour, stylistic sophistication and sheer theatrical magic.

Click here for remainder of review (subscription to Financial Times online required).

Verona in Waltz Time

by ALAN RICH [LA Weekly February 4 - 10, 2005]

MUD AND SUGAR

If there must be Gounod -- a point I will argue -- let it be thus. The mud and sugar of his Roméo et Juliette do not entirely disappear behind the splendor of the L.A. Opera's performance, but that night at the opera is, indeed, a dream happenstance. If you come away more oppressed by humidity than by heat, the fault resides in the opera's original formulators, not in the team currently at work at the Music Center. They have done their work well. Anna Netrebko sings the Juliet, and what comes out -- most of all in her Waltz number, which is the only tune anyone remembers from this very long opera -- is the stuff of moonbeams. Rolando Villazón, the Romeo, is a dreamboat who sings like an angel while climbing ladders onto balconies and into hearts. There's a scene in bed, with paired bare abs and pecs all agleam in dawn's early light; yum. Marc Barrard sings of Queen Mab, trippingly and with high delight; Suzanna Guzman is a delightfully crusty Nurse in the few lines the creators have left her; Anna-Maria Panzarella steals a small scene in the song for Stephano (Balthasar in Shakespeare).

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The Players Let Loose

Electrifying 'Roméo et Juliette' Lights Up the Stage

by Marc Porter Zasada [LA Downtown News Online]

An opera fan lives for those few thrilling moments: a rising tenor finds his full voice, a soprano proves passionate and unafraid, a duet soars off the stage. All that and more occurred on opening night of Roeo et Juliette last week, when Los Angeles Opera offered an electrifying new production of Charles Gounod's very French version of the English bard's story set in Italy.

Click here for remainder of review.