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Roméo et Juliette
Their love is here to stay!

Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo in a new production of Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette”  are being praised for their chemistry. 

Is it “ A marriage  of true minds.”

Here’s what they told a NYTimes writer:

GRIGOLO:  It’s not out of nothing. 

It’s like when you want to make a dish in the kitchen, you have good prime materials. Good tomato, good zucchini, good fish. Everything is so fresh. You just need to put it on the grill.  Me, Diana, a good conductor, a good director: 

The ingredients are so good that it’s going to come out something nice.

DAMRAU: It’s true.

GRIGOLO: You just do the right thing. Just do it for real. We never fake it.

DAMRAU: The kissing we fake.

GRIGOLO;  What?  I don’t fake it.  I never fake it.

So much for “he said/she said” discussions—especially when he and she sing  four stunning duets in Romeo and Juliette.

This Met production with its classic yet unspecific time period, consistent, with a touch of Fellini showmanship, sets the stage for the eternal love that is forever Romeo and Juliette.  

What is about the Simulcast  that is  better than in person?  The closeups where we enter the space of the intimacy of the two lovers —a contrast to the wide world picture of the chorus.  

 With amazing tour de force of design, the entire five acts flow on one place, with the most subtle adjustments even as the two lovers mature in the realization of what the youthful love entitles. This is a recording of  Romeo and Juliette  that will not die.

Side note:  Yes, Grigolo will remind you of a young (and far more athletic) Pavarotti, a man who told whom to be a star.   


FOOTNOTES
Quote from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 
 Interview excerpt from Zachary Woolfe  Romeo and Juliet, Flushed and Feverish at the Met Opera (Dec. 22, 2016)

DON’T MISS THE NEXT ONE —a   Rusalka  like you have never seen before!

INFORMATION   http://www.fathomevents.com/event/rusalka-live

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