sign in sign up
<<
Home , After Juliet, Georg Benda, Romeo und Julie

Class 3: Star-Crossed Lovers

1. Title Slide I know this is an class, but let’s start with something that should be familiar to everyone: 2. Bernstein: , “Tonight” 3. — still of the above. This, of course, comes from West Side Story of 1957, with music by Leonard Bernstein (1918–90). And, equally of course, his book by Arthur Laurents is an updating of Shakespeare’s and with the warring families of Verona changed to street gangs in New York’s West Side. are the original “star-crossed lovers” and the focus of the first hour of my class today. Replace Shakespeare’s marble balcony with steel fire-escapes, and this scene is a remarkably close parallel to his Balcony Scene from Act II, one of the three scenes for the two lovers that I shall concentrate on over the next 45 minutes; the other two are the Bedroom Scene from Act III, when Romeo has to flee after his one and only night of married love, and the Tomb Scene from Act V, where it all ends. 4. Some musical settings of Romeo and Juliet The best known Romeo and Juliet opera is by Charles Gounod in 1867. I shall be playing his settings of each of the three duet scenes from the opera back to back before the break. But first, I wanted to give you examples of other musical settings of each, drawn from two and a half centuries of musical history. The earliest in the play, but the most recent in time, is Bernstein’s, which you have just heard. For the Bedroom Scene, we go all the way back to before Mozart, with ’s German opera from 1776. And for the Tomb Scene, we visit by Vincenzo Bellini, the third of the famous trio of bel canto , with Rossini and Donizetti. I could have added many more to this list, but these will do for now. 5. Georg Anton Benda and Georg Anton Benda (1722–95) is credited with initiating the German , or opera with spoken dialogue, a form later adopted by Mozart in his Abduction from the Seraglio and Magic Flute. Benda’s work is close to the Shakespeare, though it begins in his Act III, after Romeo has met and married Juliet, killed , and been banished. Uniquely of the adaptations listed here, it manages a happy ending; Juliet wakes before Romeo has taken the poison. I want to play, however, the scene where Romeo hears the lark heralding the dawn, and Juliet claims it is the nightingale, urging him to stay (“Ach, bleibe doch”). I do not have the text, however, so I will show you the relevant Shakespeare. Halfway through, the Laura comes in, turning the ensemble into a trio. 6. Benda: Romeo und Julie, Act I finale 7. Georg Anton Benda (repeat) 8. Vincenzo Bellini and I Capuleti

— 1 —

Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35) was one of those immensely talented composers like Schubert and Pergolesi who died young. His Capuleti is not especially close to Shakespeare, but this is not because he was playing fast and loose with the original. His librettist, Felice Romani, who also wrote The Elixir of Love, went back to an earlier Italian source and bypassed Shakespeare for most of the opera, though he comes very close in the final Tomb Scene. And this is what I am going to play. I have time only for the final duet, after Juliet realizes that Romeo has taken poison. As with last week’s Donizetti, note how the lovely bel canto melodies spin out effortlessly, as though etching the tragedy in cool lines rather than splashes of color. It is perhaps an acquired taste, but very special to those who treasure it. In this striking modern-dress production by Christof Loy for the Zurich Opera, Juliet does not die, but finds herself alone in a house of the dead. Throughout the production, she is accompanied by a silent figure, known only as the Companion. The entire opera is staged as a flashback from a state of madness. 9. Bellini: I Capuleti ed I Montecchi, Final duet 10. Vincenzo Bellini and I Capuleti (repeat)

11. Charles Gounod and Roméo et Juliette When one thinks about Romeo and Juliet as an opera, however, chances are that you mean Roméo et Juliette (1867) by Charles Gounod (1818–93), who dominates the field, much as his earlier Faust stands out among the many operatic treatments of that legend. This is not to say that either work is necessarily the best, merely that in sheer scale and staying power they have eclipsed their rivals. At a time when the Paris Opéra was considered the leading house in Europe, Gounod gave the French public what they wanted: grand opera with many scenic opportunities, lots of passion, and apparently endless melody. There is a profuseness about Gounod, however, that makes him difficult to handle in a class like this one. Each of the three big duet scenes that I shall play—balcony, bedroom, and tomb—is multi-sectional and runs anything from 12 to 20 minutes if uncut. Rather than omit one, however, I have chosen what seems to be the most original or characteristic sections of each—the opening of the first, the middle of the second, and the ending of the third; they are 6-minutes excerpts even so. 12. Charles Gounod (repeat): Balcony scene We will play the central portion of the Balcony Scene. After Romeo’s equivalent of What light through yonder window breaks?, he sees Juliet, and the two have just begun to talk when they are interrupted by a substantial episode with chorus. Now he comes back, and Gounod gives him a short moment alone here before Juliet sees him and urges him to arrange their marriage. There is a noise in the house, and he has to go again, but as Shakespeare says, Parting is such sweet sorrow | that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow. As in Shakespeare, she will call him back many times, but this is the essence of the scene. 13. Gounod: Roméo et Juliette, Balcony scene (opening) 14. Charles Gounod (repeat): Bedroom scene

— 2 —

Similarly, we shall play the central part of the Bedroom Scene. Gounod opens with a very tender, almost religious, evocation of their night of love. But now the lark is heard announcing day (less florid but more insistent than Benda’s). Juliet tries to persuade him it is the nightingale, but both know he has to leave. 15. Gounod: Roméo et Juliette, Bedroom scene (central section) 16. Charles Gounod (repeat): Tomb scene And finally, the closing sections of the Tomb Scene. In the Shakespeare, Romeo dies before Juliet wakes; there is no exchange between them. But no can resist the chance of a dying love duet, and all of them (as we have seen in the Bellini) have Juliet wake after Romeo has taken the poison, but while he is still able to move, speak, and sing. In Gounod’s version, Romeo is so overjoyed to find Juliet alive that he forgets that he himself is dying. We shall begin our excerpt from the moment when he realizes, and take it to the end of the opera. Note the way Gounod brings back music from elsewhere in the opera to underline the pathos, especially that of the nightingale and lark 17. Gounod: Roméo et Juliette, Tomb scene (ending) 18. Title slide (repeat)

19. Posters for La Bohème Look at these posters for Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. The original one from 1896 might seem to be for a madcap farce: the colorful characters from the Scènes de la Vie de Bohème—a popular newspaper serial written by Henri Murger between 1847 and 1849—chasing across the page with no hint of tragedy in sight. The middle poster, by Jamie Wyeth, is for a Metropolitan Opera production in 1976; it shows a distinct shift towards a romantic view of the work. And the photo poster at bottom right, for an Australian company in 2012, shows something else again: an emphasis on the youth of the characters and the psychological realism of the treatment. 20. Act III sets for La Bohème Of course, different people interpret realism differently. For years, Bohème productions around the world have been dominated by the legacy of Franco Zeffirelli, whose vast sense of scale and minute attention to detail created stage pictures that seem to get a full city block onto the stage. For me, the fascination is not the realism, but the artifice—the fact that anyone would go to such trouble to create such a facsimile out of canvas, paint, and plaster. For that reason, I shall be showing our three scenes— the closing sequences of Acts I, III, and IV—not in a stage production, but in the 2008 movie made by Robert Dornheim, starring what seems to be our go-to couple: Rolando Villazón and Anna Netrebko. 21. La Bohème, still from Act I With three scenes, there is a lot to get in, so I shall confine myself to a quick PowerPoint slide before each one. The Act I scene in which the lovers meet consists of a bit of rather comic business, followed by two arias, one for him and one for her. This is their falling in love; even as a poet and a simple seamstress, they are united in their shared vision of a more romantic world. Rodolfo’s friends call from

— 3 — outside, and he asks Mimì to join them. This production picks up on the implicit promise of what they will do when they come back. 22. Puccini: La Bohème, ending of Act I 23. La Bohème, still from Act III By Act III, Mimì and Rodolfo have been living together for some months. But they have begun to quarrel. The real reason is because of her illness, which neither will acknowledge. Fearing that he cannot look after her, Rodolfo berates her, hoping to drive her to seek somebody who can. The last part of the act consists of three numbers. First, a trio, in which Mimì overhears Rodolfo talking to his friend Marcello. Then her aria, “Donde lieta uscì,” telling Rodolfo she is leaving him, and asking him to gather up her things and send them on; note the musical reminiscences of her Act I aria. And finally a quartet. Mimì and Rodolfo agree to stay together until spring; their duet is offset by a slanging match between Marcello and his girlfriend, Musetta. 24. Puccini: La Bohème, ending of Act III 25. La Bohème, still from Act IV Act IV opens with the men alone, making the best of their return to bachelorhood. But there is a knock on the door. After some months of being kept by a more wealthy man, Mimì has returned to Rodolfo’s attic to die. One of his roommates goes to find a doctor, but it is in vain. Musetta is reconciled with Marcello, but Rodolfo is left desolate. 26. Puccini: La Bohème, ending of Act IV 27. Closing title

— 4 —