The Opera Skimmer

Check out the news at San Diego Opera with our new Opera Skimmer. The most current articles, interviews and reviews are all available at a glance. Click on any article to read it in its entirety.

Gounod's 'Romeo and Juliet' at San Diego Opera, enjoyed by MARIA NOCKIN

Music & Vision Daily
Composer Charles Gounod, who lived from 1818 to 1893, is best known for his Ave Maria and two of his operas. Born in Paris, he was the son of a painter who had won the prestigious Prix de Rome for art in 1783. Charles, also a gifted painter, won the prize for music in 1839 and used his time in Italy to study sacred works of the sixteenth century. Only in 1855 did he achieve a degree of fame with the première of his Saint Cecilia Mass. His first opera, Sappho, was written as a vehicle for Pauline Viardot-Garcia. It was presented at the Paris Opéra in 1851 but never became popular. Four years later, however, he had a major success with Faust. Several works followed that did not hold the stagefor very long.

Romeo steals the show in San Diego Opera's 'Romeo and Juliet'

North County Times
O Romeo, Romeo, where hast thou been keeping thyself, Romeo?
That's probably the question on many audience members' lips from the moment Stephen Costello begins singing in San Diego Opera's new production of Charles Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet."
In his thrilling company debut as Romeo, the young tenor shows all the promise of becoming America's next great opera star. Besides the fact that he's handsome, well-built and tall (qualities often sorely lacking in tenors), Costello has a robust and secure voice with sweetness and subtlety in the mid-range and those sustained, star-making top notes that seem to go on for hours.

Gounod's 'Romeo and Juliet' Soars at Civic Theatre

SanDiego.com
When it comes to successfully translating the plays of Shakespeare onto the opera stage, Guiseppe Verdi is the last word for audiences and critics alike. Few will dispute that his two final operas, Otello and Falstaff, display a nonpareil musical and dramatic sophistication worthy of their original plays. However, the Shakespeare-based operas of his Parisian contemporaries, Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet and Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, have been dismissed—especially in the last century— as embarrassingly superficial treatments of the Bard’s great plays.
The revered music historian Alfred Einstein sniffed that Gounod’s tuneful operas aspired “to nothing more lofty than the achievements of many lucky song-writers.” I suspect that if Einstein had experienced a performance of Romeo and Juliet with the wealth of vocal talent and commanding stage direction of San Diego Opera’s current Civic Theatre production, he would not have given Gounod’s Shakespearean opera such short shrift.

Gounod: Roméo et Juliette

MusicalCriticism.com
On March 13, San Diego Opera continued its 2010 season with the opening performance of Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. Previously seen in 1973 and 1998, this is the third production of Gounod's tragic love story in the company's history. The big news this time around, was the double debut of husband and wife singers Stephen Costello as Romeo and Ailyn Pérez as Juliette. With an impressive history dating back to the mid-60's, San Diego Opera has both strong roots in the local community and an international-caliber reputation that facilitates the signing of a top-flight roster of singers. And despite the intermittent musical inspiration of Gounod's final opera, the packed house on Saturday erupted in storms of applause at the conclusion, indicating their enthusiastic approval and support of this excellent regional opera company.

Romeo And Juliet Pine Away On These Days

KPBS
MAUREEN CAVANAUGH (Host): "For never was a story of more woe. Than this of Juliet and her Romeo." That's how Shakespeare wrapped up his tale of young love, old hatreds and cruel fate. The tragic romance of Romeo and Juliet has inspired dozens of retellings from ballets to Broadway musicals. But one of the most successful and beautiful of the adaptations is Charles Gounod's opera Romeo and Juliet.
The San Diego Opera production currently at the Civic Theatre, has one more romantic twist up its sleeve. The two stars of Romeo and Juliet, Stephen Costello and Ailyn Peréz happen to be in love with each other in real life they are, in fact, married.

San Diego Opera offers ravishing 'Romeo and Juliet'

San Diego News Network
"“Romeo and Juliet” should not be missed. If you have friends who aren’t sure they like opera, you should try taking them to this one."
San Diego Opera’s splendid production of Charles Gounod’s ravishing “Romeo and Juliet” makes one wonder why this opera is not performed more often.
Based on Shakespeare’s play, and sometimes even quoting his text, it was Gounod’s major success after “Faust,” which had been so universally acclaimed that his next four operas languished in its shadow. Not so “Romeo and Juliet.” Aided by the coincidental but almost simultaneous opening of 1867’s L’Exposition Universelle, which drew 9.2 million visitors to Paris, the opera played for weeks to sold-out houses and became a staple of the French operatic repertoire.

Audiences fall in love with 'Romeo and Juliet'

The San Diego Union-Tribune
"To describe [Perez's] voice so wonderfully individual is all-but-impossible, but here’s a try: strawberries and cream in a goblet of platinum and crystal"
As the curtain fell on Charles Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet” on Saturday night at the Civic Theatre, the audience’s enthusiastic response must have been a special kind of music to San Diego Opera management’s ears.
French grand opera is, by and large, unfamiliar territory outside opera centers like New York, Chicago and San Francisco; and even a leading regional company like San Diego hesitates to take the risk of programming an operatic outlier. This is only the third time in SDO’s nearly 45-year history that Shakespeare’s famous couple have enacted their doomed romance, and the challenges this opera poses are always daunting, even if they can be met with today’s resources rather than yesterday’s.

Costello, Perez in Passionately Romantic 'Romeo et Juliette'

Opera Warhorses
"Beyond their beautiful singing, Costello and Perez look and act their roles. Perez’ Juliet and Costello’s Romeo are believable as adolescents consumed in the passion of love."
San Diego Opera mounted Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette” for the attractive, youthful-looking husband and wife team of leggiero tenor Stephen Costello and coloratura soprano Ailyn Perez. Both were debuting at San Diego Opera.
Conductor Karen Keltner emphasized the score’s abundant lyricism. Several cuts in the opera were made. The formulaic French ballets, imposed on all grand opera composers for most 19th century performances in Paris, are usually cut in American performances, as “Romeo’s” ballet was here. Keltner observed most of the other traditional performance cuts, including the nuptial procession, not found in the Bard’s play. Also missing was the brief choral prologue that follows the overture.

Young Stars Shine in San Diego Opera's 'Romeo and Juliet'

Opera West
"Pérez is perfect for this role. Some say it’s a role for two different voices: she has them both."
What was the meaning of the rapturous applause which greeted the sets and costumes at curtain rise Saturday, the opening night of San Diego Opera’s revival of Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette”? Were patrons of a certain age suddenly swept back to the 1950’s at the Globe’s Shakespeare Festival in Balboa Park? The whole production evoked something of that look – an all-purpose two-level Renaissance era stage that might have been used for anything written by the Bard. But, borrowed from the Utah Opera, these sets and period costumes (Eric Fielding/Susan Memmott-Allred) were actually a bit dispiriting, redolent as they were of recession era budgetary necessity.

Shakespeare in Love

ConcertoNet.com
"Shakespeare would be in love with THIS production."
For centuries many of the world’s prolific writers have delved into the topics of human emotions and dilemmas, all impacting the art arena. One of the most well known is William Shakespeare. This noted poet and playwright was an exponential force since many of his works were interpreted and presented on stage through operatic compositions. Several composers profiled Shakespeare’s colorful characters and turned them into prized masterpieces including Thomas’ Hamlet, Verdi’s Macbeth and Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra.

San Diego Opera relishes fighting, dancing in 'Romeo and Juliet'

San Diego News Network
The words of Shakespeare are beautiful on their own. But set to the music of Charles Gounod, the story of Romeo and Juliet is experienced in a stunning new light.
As the third of four productions in San Diego Opera’s 2010 season, “Romeo and Juliet” features glorious music, that famous balcony scene… and some truly impressive fighting.
Fencing
That’s where Dale Girard comes in.
As the production’s fight coordinator, Girard is responsible for staging the battles between the Montagues and Capulets. He makes sure that Mercutio and Tybalt attack with proper technique and authenticity, yet ensures that the singers are safe in the process.