LA Opera Revives Its Enchanting ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with a Winning Cast
/By Truman C. Wang
11/4/2024, Updated 11/22/2024
Photo credit: Cory Weaver
Amina edris as juliet,, duke kim as romeo
Previously seen in Los Angeles in 2005 and 2011, Ian Judge’s twenty-year-old production of Roméo et Juliette remains popular and it is a good one. Using several movable sets of steel scaffolding, clever lighting and a few simple drop-down tree branches and chandeliers, the scenery changes quickly and smoothly: a dark desolate street, an opulent, brilliantly-lit ballroom, a wedding chapel and an enchanting balcony set with starry skies. Tim Goodchild’s gorgeous period costumes further add to the visual appeal. Kitty McNamee, the choreographer in previous stagings, made a good showing in her directorial debut here. The dramatic scenes are believable and deeply moving, but I was most impressed with McNamee’s flair for comedy in the unexpected places: old nurse Gertrude’s little happy dance with the Capulets, Friar Laurence covering his eyes at Romeo’s fickleness, Juliet playfully nudging Romeo during their secret wedding like a couple of excited teenagers that they are. The bedroom scene was tender, romantic and artfully directed (supervised by intimacy director Sarah E. Widzer), but drew giggles from some in the audience; I suspect these were the same people who would giggle at Caravaggio’s half-nude Bacchus. There is also a long and elaborate fight scene (directed byAndrew Kenneth Moss) that ends with a shocking gun blast.
Like Carmen, Gounod’s score for Roméo comes in many versions, from its initial Théâtre-Lyrique premiere in 1867 to later revisions for the Opéra-Comique (1873) and l’Opéra (1889). The version as performed at the L.A. Opera observes all the traditional cuts – the ballet, the dialog between Friar John and Friar Laurence on how the express letter to Roméo went astray. The abridged wedding scene contains just enough divertissement music for the purpose of scene change from Juliet’s bedroom to the chapel. (I have never heard the divertissement music in its entirety in the theater.)
The large international cast are stylish in their French singing and idiomatic in conveying the text despite not one singer being French. The Egyptian-New Zealand soprano Amina Edris, the Juliet, is a light coloratura soprano. She has youth, charm, and also the determination that the role needs. She moved gracefully, eloquently, winningly both as an actress and as a singer. Her voice ran fluently through the intricacies of the famous role. Her trill was plausible, her coloratura accurate. The sound was clear and pure, and it filled the cavernous 3,156-seat Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Korean tenor Duke Kim, by tones and by phrasing, gave a vivid portrayal of the ardent young Roméo – spontaneous, convincing, with power to sadden and thrill. In their scenes together, Kim and Edris showed electrifying chemistry and acted like believable teenagers, despite having only one week of rehearsal time.
Chinese bass Wei Wu is a sympathetic Friar Laurence. Bass-baritone Craig Colclough, an L.A. Opera veteran, is a velvet-voiced Count Capulet. Justin Austin’s agile baritone was heard to good effects in Mercutio’s Queen Mab song. Margaret Gawrysiak’s Gertrude (Juliet’s old nurse) and Laura Krumm’s Stephano (Romeo’s page) were both delightful in providing much needed comedic relief. Other comprimario roles were ably sung and acted by members of L.A. Opera's Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program: Brazilian bass-baritone Vinícius Costa (Duke of Verona), Chinese tenor Yuntong Han (Tybalt), Nathan Bowles (Benvolio), and baritone Ryan Wolfe (Paris).
The conductor is UK-based Venezuelan conductor Domingo Hindoyan, making his Los Angeles debut. He seemed to have fallen under what Bernard Shaw – reviewing an 1889 Roméo with Jean de Reszke and Melba – called “the spell of the heavenly melody, of the exquisite orchestral web of sound colors, of the unfailing dignity and delicacy of accent and rhythm.” He re-created the same magical spell for his listeners through nuanced playing of the orchestra, and tone colors blending as one with the voices. The LA Opera Chorus impressed with the precision and power of their singing.
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I also attended the November 20 performance. Lina González-Granados, L.A. Opera's Resident Conductor, gave a superlative account of Gounod’s score, as she had in all other L.A. Opera productions that I have seen. Under her direction, the strings sounded particularly luminous and lovely playing mezzoforte at the start of the balcony scene and in the bedroom scene. But I was most impressed with her masterful accompaniment of singers onstage – in the young lovers’ first meeting and duet, their halting, hesitant lines were matched, even anticipated, in the soft, graceful ebb and flow of the orchestra – as if the conductor was breathing as one with the singers. In the climactic scenes of Mercutio’s death and Juliet’s potion aria, the orchestral playing had the Romantic grandeur and sweep of a Bruckner symphony. With L.A. Opera’s Music Director James Conlon retiring after the current season, González-Granados should be on the shortlist of his replacement.
The cast sang mostly as well as they did on the first night, with Wei Wu’s bass sounding even more firm and imposing, and Margaret Gawrysiak dialing up her comical Gertrude a notch higher. Amina Edris sounded less fine and managed Juliet’s potion aria without a trill. (For a coloratura-soprano that is akin to drinking champagne without bubbles.) Duke Kim’s Romeo was as virile and poetic as he was on the first night; his stylish singing combined both the elegance and refinement of the French mélodie and the fire and brio of the Italian belcanto. Paradoxically and most surprisingly, Laura Krumm, in a minor role, gave the finest singing of the evening, delivering Stephano’s ‘white dove’ aria in a most pleasing, captivating manner, and capping it with a perfect trill at the end. I could see her in other belcanto roles such as Jane Seymour in Anna Bolena and Rosina in Barbiere.
Laura Krumm as Stephano
Truman C. Wang is Editor-in-Chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, other Southern California publications, as well as the Hawaiian Chinese Daily. He studied Integrative Biology and Music at U.C. Berkeley.