He seemed totally sympathetic to all the cast and his energy was palpable throughout the performance and the orchestra responded in the usual exemplary fashion. The orchestra was under the baton of a youthful French-Canadian conductor, Yves Abel. The sets worked reasonably well, though it took a little adjusting of one’s expectations the costumes, red tones for the Capulets, greens and blues for the Montagues, were also simplified versions of Renaissance dress (the costume designer was Carola Volles). Grinda has chosen a somewhat minimalist approach to the opera to suggest the lavishness of renaissance Verona, while leaving something to our imagination the sets (by Eric Chevalier) feature a lot of horizontal stripes and clean-cut angles, with the occasional use of simple fabric (mostly white) in representing Juliet’s bedroom and the final scene in the tomb. This version was first shown in Genoa in 2012, with Andrea Bocelli starring as Romeo. ![]() This production is directed by Jean-Louis Grinda, making his American debut. His co-star is American soprano Nadine Sierra both singers did much of their training in San Francisco (though not quite at the same time) and there was a wonderful chemistry between them, from beginning to end. ![]() Fortunately, New Zealand tenor Pene Pati (the cover Romeo) was scheduled to sing the last of seven performances (with his wife Amina Edris) and so was prepared to step into the full run of the opera. There’s been some extra excitement surrounding it this fall as one of the stars, Bryan Hymel (who gave such magnificent performances in Les Troyens a few years back) cancelled for personal reasons at almost the last minute. The romantic’s romantic opera, Charles Gounod’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, has returned to San Francisco Opera for the first time in over 30 years.
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