Two of operas brightest stars feature in this revival of Bartlett Sher's 2008 production - Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczela. And both enjoyed a stupendous triumph at this performance, ideally cast at this stage of their careers, with enough youth on the one hand to convince physically and, yet with enough vocal maturity to comfortably span Gounod's testing score.

Netrebko's Juliette comes across as charmingly natural, the purity of her tone appropriately suited to the role. She relies more on dynamic variation than variety of vocal color to convey Juliette's gamut of emotions, but is affecting and effective nonetheless.

Beczela well suits his dark wig, and is quite the dashing hero, as much at ease in his fencing scene as in the romantic moments with his young bride. His sense of vocal style and technique are as-good-as immaculate, making him an absolute joy to see and hear.

Those returning from the original cast include Mikhail Petrenko (a sympathetic Frère Laurent), Cora Burggraaf (a convincingly boyish Stéphano), Susanne Resmark (a no-nonsense Gertrude), and Russell Braun as a powerful Mercutio. In addition, Michael Spyres stood out as an outstanding Tybalt and Darren Jeffrey portrayed a solid Count Capulet.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin returned as conductor and (as anticipated) brought together the forces on the stage with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg for a vibrant and romantic reading.