Friday, April 14, 9 PM

Hailed by The New York Times for singing “with white-hot sensuality and impassioned lyricism,” Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo star as the tragic lovers in Shakespeare’s classic story. Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette airs on WHRO TV 15 on Friday, April 14, at 9 p.m. 

The Met’s new production by director Bartlett Sher also features Virginie Verrez as Stéphano, Elliot Madore as Mercutio, and Mikhail Petrenko as Frère Laurent. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the sumptuous score.

The opera premiered in 1867 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris. Perhaps the most enduringly successful of the many operatic settings of the world’s consummate love story, Roméo et Juliette is a prime example of French Romanticism, a tradition that values subtlety, sensuality, and graceful vocal delivery over showy effects. In the opera there is a slight shift of focus away from the word games of the original play and a greater focus on the two lovers, who are given four irresistible duets, including a brief final reunion in the tomb scene that does not appear in the play.

Watch a preview:

 

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