ROMEO AND JULIET 

CENTRAL CITY OPERA: JUNE 24 – AUGUST 5

            L-R: Ricardo Garcia and Madison Leonard

Central City Opera’s production of Romeo and Juliet is a banquet for the ear and the eye. 

 

 

     "Romeo et Juliette" is an opera by Charles Gounod, with French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carre. Following the success of his “Faust,” the composer’s “Romeo et Juliette” was the most popular opera in the second half of the nineteenth century.

     Madison Leonard is a ravishing Juliet. Her acting stuns and her soaring soprano intoxicates!

     Juliet’s Waltz is sung and played with such joie de vivre it will make you rise out of your seat. 

          Ricardo Garcia is a dashing, well-sung Romeo. His duets with Ms. Leonard blend to ear-pleasing perfection. One is happy to report that there is undeniable chemistry between Mr. Garcia’s Romeo and Ms. Leonard’s Juliet. 

     Wei Wu is stellar in the acting and singing of Frere Laurent. 

     Shea Owens delivers a well-sung and credible Mercutio.

     Erroll-Wesley Shaw’s performance in the role of Le Duc is masterful. This artist’s basso cries out to be heard in larger roles.

     Adam Cioffari is most memorable in the singing of Juliet’s father, Comte Capulet.

     Although Sarah Neal’s Gertrude is delightful in the acting and the singing, one might wish the director had cast a more seasoned actress for the Nurse.

     The lush musical joie de vivre of Capulet’s party will sound in your ears for days. It’s almost as strong an earworm as ‘the dance of the knights’ in Prokofiev’s ballet about these same ‘star-crossed lovers.’ 

     Under the baton of Maestro John Baril, the scrumptious Central City Opera orchestra delivers Gounod’s melodious score to perfection. Baril’s music direction keeps the musicians in the pit and the singers onstage always in sync.

     Matthew S. Crane’s gray crypt of a set design, which plays host to both love and death, proves to be more than efficient in its construction.  

      Matt Herndon’s fight choreography is expertly on point. 

     The costume design by Robert Perdziola is eye-popping indeed.

"Romeo and Juliet" is sung in French with English surtitles.

(Gounod’s "Romeo and Juliet" is playing in repertoire with "Kiss Me Kate" - Tony for Best Musical of 1949 - and Rossini’s "Othello.")

 

For tickets call the box office at 

303-292-6700 or go online at centralcityopera.org