Gounod: Romeo Et Juliette
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Free Music Notes for Gounod: Romeo Et Juliette
Free Music Review: Beautiful Soundtrack
Hit: 5 Stars
Gounod is my all-time favorite opera composer, and this soundtrack is a great representation of his abilities. The music is so passionate and expressive that you can still follow the story without actually watching the opera. I would definately recommend this to any classical music fan, as well as Gounod's Faust.Free Music Review: A True Gem
Hit: 5 Stars
GOUNOD was a contemporary of Wagner and Verdi, and at times more popular than these two venerable giants. He was almost the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his day and his many works were loved and revered. Today only two are performed with any regularity; FAUST and ROMEO ET JULIETTE and even these two great works seem to only be staged on the larger opera houses. Both are considered somewhat old fashioned, but when one digs out a set of the two great works and listens to the music, it's beauty can still carry a listener away and while it may not be as sophisticated as Verdi's treatment of Shakespeare in MACBETH or OTELLO or as intense as the epic operas of Wagner, the music is pure enjoyment and an opera lover's delight.
This EMI recording of ROMEO ET JULIETTE is just about as good as opera can get. Franco Corelli and Mirella Freni are cast as the star crossed lovers. Ms. Freni's voice has a youthful innocence to it which makes it perfect for the role of Julliette. She performs the role somewhat carefully. We see this in her Juliette's famous aria "Ah! Je Veux Vivre" where Freni is more methodical than showy but she sings to perfection. Corelli's Romeo is confident and powerful with the bravado called for in this role. Their duets, particularly the beloved "Va Je Ta'i Pardonne" from Act IV is in and of itself worth the price of the recording.
Freni and Corelli carry the set, but the supporting performers are also well cast. The chorus is spectacular and the Paris Opera Theater Orchestra under the direction of Alain Lombard captures the magic of Gounod's music. This is a set that will bring much enjoyment to anyone who purchases it and belongs in the collection of anyone who loves to put on an opera set and be dazzled and entertained.
Free Music Review: miscast Rom?o
Hit: 4 Stars
Why cast two italians in the leads in this otherwise all french
production is mind-boggling. I am a big fan of Franco Corelli
but he is not in his element here. No doubt he casted a dashing
figure on stage in the role of Romeo but without the visual
aspect his portrayal comes across more bully than romantic
young man - for all his effort at delicacy his voice and style
are simply wrong for the role. Mirella Freni as Juliette fares
much better although italianate in style she at least captures
the ingenuousness of the characther and the voice is truly
ravishing. The rest of the cast is excellent and of course
idiomatic. Gounod's beautiful music shimmers in the hands of
Alain Lombard's conducting and the recorded sound is splendid.
In sum despite some reservation there is a lot to savour and
admire in this set but one can only dream of what it would
have been with Nicolai Gedda or Alain Vanzo as Romeo.
Free Music Review: gorgeous recording
Hit: 5 Stars
This recording is the gold standard for this opera. It certainly is not perfect- Corelli's voice is a little big for this role, but stunningly beautiful. Freni leaves out some high notes and does not choose to sing the poison aria (which is unfortunately frequently omitted). However, her voice is beautiful and expessive- far beyond others I have heard in this role.Free Music Review: Corelli and Freni make it all worthwhile
Hit: 5 Stars
Source: Studio recording made in June and July 1968 at Salle Wagram, Paris.
Sound: Good EMI analog stereo, digitally remasterd in 1994.
Cast: Romeo - Franco Corelli; Juliette - Mirella Freni; Le Compte Capulet - Claude Cales; Mercutio - Henri Gui; Gertrude (Nurse) - Michele Vilma; Tybalt - Robert Cardona; Stephano - Eliane Lublin; Fr?ere Laurent - Xavier Depraz; Le Compte Paris - Christos Grigoriou; Benvolio - Maurice Auzeville; Le Duc de Verone - Pierre Thau. Conductor - Alain Lombard, with Orchestre et Choeurs du Theatre National de l'Opera de Paris.
Documentation: Libretto in French and English. Track list that displays characters singing and provides timings. Summary of the plot tied to the track listings. Unusually fat-headed essay of the history of the opera by Robert T. Jones who informs us that Gounod's "years of theological study had made him a remarkably well-read, cultured person," and that the love music of "Faust" and "Romeo" "takes on a floating, transfigured quality that is immensely convincing." Jones defends Gounod's rather battered reputation by saying, "Since in junking Shakespeare's niceties, he had made it perfectly plain that he was interested not in trying to produce a work on Shakespeare's own level but in creating a successful operatic display piece to soprano and tenor, it seems that critics may have been needlessly harsh on him." With such friends, who needs enemies?
I am taking the contrarian side by saying that Barbier and Carre's libretto for "Romeo et Juliette" isn't bad at all. I refer to its structure, of course, not its language, for I (like most of the residents of the western half of officially bi-lingual Canada) am among the least reliable judges of what constitutes good French speech. Barbier and Carre were, at the very least, workmanlike and respectful to the Shakespearean play. Unlike the benighted hack Romani, who dismembered the story for Bellini, they did not cast out most of the characters and half the plot. Unlike the too-self-confident Berlioz, they did not willfully distort the story or add a useless character as he did in his ruthless assault on the poor, innocent text of "Much Ado About Nothing."
Barbier and Carre actually offer most of the highlights of the play in a more or less coherent manner: the opening chorus (set by Gounod for the entire cast), Romeo's puppy love for Rosaline, the Queen Mab speech, the ball of the Capulets, the meeting of the two lovers, the recognition by Tybalt, the balcony scene (in a fair approximation), the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt, the death of Mercutio (including "a plague on both your houses" but not "not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door"), Romeo's revenge on Tybalt, Romeo's exile, the parting of the lovers, the announcement of the forthcoming marriage to Paris, the plot with Friar Laurence, the false death of Juliet, and the tomb, they are all there. There is one addition, a final duet before the young lovers expire. The major omissions are the murder of well-meaning, hard-luck Paris and the final scene of shocked and weeping reconciliation between the warring Capulets and Montagus.
All in all, Barbier and Carre were more faithful to Shakespeare than Boito was in either "Otello" or "Falstaff." If "Romeo et Juliette" is less successful than Verdi's masterpieces, the fault lies not with the librettists. The fault is Charles Gounod's. Robert T. Jones has been kind enough to tell us why: Gounod wanted to create "a successful operatic display piece to soprano and tenor". And, no, the critics have NOT been too harsh on him! In too many places, he turned blazing dramatic genius into tinkling musical treacle. Nevertheless, in its own way and at its own level, "Romeo et Juliette" is pleasing. It really is in the forefront of the B-list operas, perhaps even higher in their ranks than Gounod's "Faust."
With just two exceptions, this is essentially a French recording: French opera, French recording venue, French supporting cast, French conductor, French orchestra and, alas, French chorus. It probably yields as much of the authentic French performing style as could still be found in the summer of 1968, when--as you might recall--interesting and exciting things were taking place on the streets of France outside the recording hall.
The two exceptions are Mirella Freni and Franco Corelli, and they are what this performance is all about. I am confident that I could make the case that they are wrong for the opera. They are Italian. Corelli's French, in particular, is questionable, to say the least. (Even I, a Pacific Coast Canuck, can tell that!) Their singing styles are Italian to their very essence, wholly un-French. They are too powerful, too self-confident to be convincing as tremulous teen-agers. All of this is true. And all of this is irrelevant. Corelli and Freni are great as Romeo and Juliette! THAT is what is relevant. This is a performance for which to kick back and just let the glorious sound roll over you, while you idly wonder how such markedly lesser talents as Alagna and Gheorghiu were chosen to record the opera in our time.
I have no reasonable expectation of hearing a better recording of "Romeo et Juliette" in high quality sound during this lifetime, so I gladly join with the previous four Amazon reviewers in assigning five stars to this one.
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