HAWAII OPERA THEATRE By Charles Gounod February 29, March 2 & 4, 2008 NEAL S. BLAISDELL CONCERT HALL oahu 2118 kalakaua avenue 808.921.1000, ala moana center 808.942.1148 maui the shops at wailea 808.879.1060 shop gucci.com Director’s Notes by KAREN TILLER We all know the story, the tale of two young lovers from feuding families… a feud that ultimately results in the senseless deaths of so many. Over the centuries it has spoken to every generation since its creation… it endures because it resonates within each of us, stroking the strings that recall the first heart-pounding moment of 16-year-old love. When we were certain that no one had ever felt this way… when we were certain that love could not be denied or broken. When Gounod was writing this opera, he wrote to his wife, telling her that he felt twenty years younger because he had become so involved and connected to the two young lovers. He found their story to be buoying and inspirational and went on to write the entire work in three months time. His score is full of youthful abandon, perfectly capturing that joyful blush of first love. Romeo et Juliette, is also the story of the tragic fruit of unending hate. In Shakespeare’s tale, bitter anger has been passed down in two families over generations. Lost are the reasons for the discord, but time has not diminished the controversy, but has only deeply Beauty worn the patterns of destructive behavior. This blinding fury sets into motion actions that are irrevocable and disastrous. Like so many conflicts large and small in the world today, the Love genesis of anger is often inexplicable and hate simply becomes a force of its own… a way of moving through existence that is Destiny utterly reactionary and volatile. And, just like the story of our two lovers, ironically only tragedy can break the cycle of hatred. The Capulets and Montagues only agree to let past injuries go as they each face the loss of their beloved children. They find common ground in the ruin and loss that each family must now suffer. And you thought the opera was dramatic. Romeo et Juliette is a one of the greatest love stories of all time. It is also a story of hope, of loss, and redemption. Let the score transport you to an earlier time, a time when you first felt your heart skip and your face flush from the sheer delight of being SALONS ✹ SPAS close to someone. Let it also remind us that finding all-important Ward Centre 591-1881 • Kailua 230-2000 common ground should be a goal, hopefully not motivated by loss Waikele 677-7770 • Kahului Maui 873-7177 but by the pursuit of preventing it. Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel Big Island 880-3335 Spa Olakino * Salon 924-2121 www.paulbrownhawaii.com 4 ROMEO & JULIET Sometimes, home is just a feeling. Take three, last day of shooting. Paris. 866.VUITTON and now on www.louisvuitton.com Ala Moana Center. The Gump Building–Waikiki. Hilton Hawaiian Village–Honolulu. Catherine Deneuve and Louis Vuitton are proud to support The Climate Project. World Premiere: Paris, France 1876 Performed by Hawaii Opera Theatre Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall February 29, March 2, 4, 2008 by Charles Gounod SPONSORS Presented in French with English Supertitles Orchestra Conductor . Mark Flint The Cades Foundation Director . Karen Tiller Sets designed by Eric Fielding for the Utah Symphony & Opera Company Set & Cargo Transportation Sets contructed by Utah Symphony & Opera Production Studio Air Canada Cargo Lighting Designer . Peter Dean Beck Horizon Lines Wig and Make-up Designer. Richard Stead Costumer . Helen E. Rodgers Supertitles Choreographer . Teddy Kern Alexander & Baldwin Foundation Fight Choreographer . Tony Pisculli Stage Manager . Gretchen Mueller Conductor English Supertitles . Matthew Lata Realtors for Opera CAST Juliette, Daughter of Capulet . Audrey Elizabeth Luna Meet the Stars Capulet, Juliette’s Father. Leslie Tennent Hermes Gertrude, Juliette’s Nurse . Dorothy Byrne Tybalt, Juliette’s Cousin . Adam Flowers Ensemble Evening Paris, Juliette’s Betrothed. Jim Price First Hawaiian Bank Gregorio, a Capulet . Patrick P. McNichols Official Airline Romeo, Son of Montague. George Dyer Continental Airlines Mercutio, Romeo’s Cousin. Etienne Dupuis Stephano, A Page in the Montague household . Sandra Piques Eddy Hospitality Benvolio, a Montague . Kawika McGuire Honolulu Club Friar Laurence . John Marcus Bindel The Duke . John Mount _ HOT CHORUS Chorus Co-Directors Beebe Freitas & Nola A. Nahulu Chorus Coordinator: Moana Sanders Soprano Alto Tenor Bass Erin Bretthauer* Kathryn Budde-Jones Mark Ah Yo Chuck Anctil Bambi-Noelani Brock** Bonnie Chock Burke Dan Barnett Melvin K. Chang Phyllis Stahl Haines Patricia I. Bushong Fred Cachola Richard Cheney Maya Mapuana* Natalie Capino** Clayton Ching Dean F. Conching Malia Ka‘ai-Barrett** Martha Gomez Kawika McGuire** David Del Rocco** Jane Kerns** Jan Tamiko Kamiya Scott Moura Bruse Eckmann Elizabeth Maddock** Marita L. Nelson Christopher Puttock Patrick McNichols** Megan Mount** Patricia Pongasi-Goldson** Douglas K. Stiles Rhinehardt Pua’a Soo Yeun Myung Moana Sanders Larry Wong Stelio Amy Rakowczyk** Pauline Taumalolo** Bradford Yamamoto** Bill South Kate Sarff Chris Walsh Nicholas R. Walters *Opera for Everyone intern Abigail Sparling** **Mae Z. Orvis Opera Studio member Benoit Weber** Joycelynn Trask** Chiho Villasenor** Supernumerary Calais Nobuhara 6 ROMEO & JULIET “H-our Oxford” watch. ”H-our” watch with double tour strap. Honolulu Ala Moana Center (808) 947-3789 Royal Hawaiian Center (808) 922-5780 Hermes.com the wedding, a non-Shakespearian character appears, the page The Story of Stephano. The young Stephano has insulted the Capulets, and Synopsis... Gounod’s opera closely a fight erupts between the two families. Tybalt challenges follows Shakespeare’s work. Romeo, who having just married into the family, refuses to Most of the libretto’s fight. Another Montague, Mercutio, takes up the challenge deviations from the play and is quickly slain. No longer able to restrain himself, serve to condense the story Romeo attacks Tybalt, killing him. Lord Capulet and heighten the musical drama. The setting: arrives with the Duke of Verona. The Duke banishes Verona, 14th century. Romeo from the town and from his beloved Juliette. The opera opens on the Capulet’s The young lovers spend their wedding night together, masked ball (Shakespeare’s fifth scene). Among the knowing Romeo will be forced into exile. He has been warned guests is Romeo, who, upon seeing Juliette, the that if he is found within the town’s walls, he will pay with his daughter of Lord Capulet, falls madly in love. Juliette, life. Romeo departs just as dawn breaks. Juliette’s father arrives however, has been betrothed (without her knowledge) to and tells her that she must marry Count Paris immediately. She the Count Paris. When told of her impending marriage she seeks advice from Friar Lawrence, who produces a potion and wants no part of it, but moments later, having met Romeo, a plan. The potion will make Juliette appear to be dead for she finds love. Juliette’s cousin Tybalt believes that the forty-two hours, and in that time, the Friar will return with masked stranger who has caught her attention is a Romeo. She promptly drinks. Lord Capulet returns to urge her Montague, sworn enemies of the Capulets, but is restrained to marry, and Juliette protests, claiming death a more attractive and is powerless to prove it. option. The potion has begun to work, and she falls to the floor, seemingly dead. The balcony scene unfolds much as it does in Shakespeare’s work. Juliette proposes marriage to Romeo Juliette is placed in the family crypt. Through a series of who agrees, and the couple is twice interrupted, finishing the miscommunications, Romeo believes her to be dead, and steals scene with the familiar lines, "parting is such sweet sorrow." into her tomb. In his anguish, he drinks poison; a moment later Juliette awakens. Romeo is ecstatic to learn that Juliette is alive. Having decided to marry, the lovers come to the cell of Friar But the poison begins to take effect and Romeo tells Juliette Lawrence, intent on exchanging vows in a secret ceremony. what he has done. Juliette seizes a dagger and mortally wounds Believing that the marriage might end the two families’ bitter herself, and the lovers die in each other’s arms. feud, the Friar agrees and the young lovers are married. After Synopsis provided by Detroit Opera 8 ROMEO & JULIET LOUIS VUITTON PRESENTS: Hawaii Opera Theatre’s 2008 Summer Season by Stephen Sondheim August 1, 3, 9 & 10 Entwine in Shakespeare’s Musical Tale BY LESLEY A. WRIGHT "One cannot trifle with love. […] Juliette has entwined me Despite its success, Roméo et Juliette has been revised or with the famous silk thread meant to capture Romeo," cut repeatedly. For the revival at the Opera-Comique in wrote Gounod while composing Roméo et Juliette for Léon 1873, Gounod himself altered the finales of Acts 1 and 3. Carvalho’s Théâtre-Lyrique in 1865. But Gounod may have For the Opéra in 1888, he added a chorus on Romeo’s been under the spell of Shakespeare’s play ever since 1839 memorable phrase "Ah, jour de deuil" in Act 3 and a ballet when he heard Berlioz’s dramatic symphony on this subject. for Act 4. The four duets of Romeo and Juliette have not Like Berlioz, he opens with a choral prelude narrating undergone such revision, and they mark the nodal points of Shakespeare’s tragedy and has a brilliantly orchestrated the drama. number for Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech. Gounod also described his act-endings in terms that evoke a symphonic When they meet in Act 1 the young protagonists use the aesthetic: Act 1 "brilliant"; Act 2 "tender and dream-like"; precious language of the madrigal, sometimes taken word Act 3 "animated and grand with its duels and the sentence for word from Shakespeare.