(no subject)

[seekingferret]

Romeo et Juliette by Gounod, at the Met. Andrea Shin as Romeo, Ailyn Pérez as Juliette, Placido Domingo conducting.

I'm not sure what to say. It's quite a good opera built on a plot I don't like. I don't think people will be too shocked to learn that I'm not a huge fan of Romeo and Juliet, or Killing Yourself Over a Chick You Met Three Day Ago: The Play. Shakespeare's language is lovely, sure, and yada yada the beautiful tragedy of teenagers being stupid in love, but it's not my favorite plot.

It's Shakespeare's frothiest tragedy, which is why I was surprised by Gounod's overture, full of big, showy, ominous brass, followed on by an adaptation of the famous In Fair Verona prologue for large choral ensemble, mournful and prophetic. And then, in a well executed tonal shift, it turns frothy, with playful music for the masquerade. Gounod's overture sets the stage for a serious and often quite effective attempt to make the events of the play feel momentous instead of pointless. But not always effective. In the end, I'm just not here for this story.

Comments

[cahn]

Ha ha. Yeah. I watched Faust once and liked it (well, the local production I saw didn't have the greatest singing or acting, but I liked the music) and I keep thinking I'd probably like the music for this one and should check it out, but... Romeo and Juliet, you know?

[ghost_lingering]

Don't forget, it's ALSO about killing yourself over a dude you meet three days ago when he kills himself over you because he was too stupid to understand your ~~brilliant plan!! to be together!! forever!! <3<3 twu luv~~

It's funny, I used to to really dislike Romeo and Juliet and then something shifted and now I just find it perplexingly hilarious. In my head it's one of the comedies or possibly it's what happens after the curtain call in all the other comedies. Or really it's a political drama with these stupid kids in the foreground. Or maybe it's just that there have been so many interesting adaptations of it which bring more dimensions to an otherwise tepid A-plot -- most recently Ronald Wimberly's Prince of Cats but I also give props to Baz Luhrmann's film which does really interesting things with film techniques and modernizing Shakespeare that are often overshadowed by Leonardo DiCaprio's mere presence. Even Still Star-Crossed treats it with the soapy scene chewing that it deserves. I still don't like it as a tragedy or as any kind of portrayal of romantic love, but I find so many interesting things happening in the background of the play now that I never used to think about. It sounds like this particular adaptation doesn't focus on what I find most interesting about it -- treating the A-plot serious and anything other than ridic rarely works for me -- but I have grown to respect it more over the years, which is crazy to me, because the A-plot is objectively terrible. Maybe I'm just easily won over by the Queen Mab speech.