Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” might be the most famous love story in human history, but it’s really more about passion, most of its characters driven by passionate hatred, not passionate love. That’s the crux of the conflict that drives the tragedy and all of its many adaptations.
Alas, passion is in too short supply in Minnesota Opera’s season-opening production of Charles Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet,” an 1867 opera that might sound like it’s chock full of ideal elements, having been composed smack in the middle of the Romantic era and sung in the language of love, French. Yet, despite some strong singing and fairly well-sculpted characterizations, this tale of fighting families lacks a sense of import and urgency.
The problem might be that it emphasizes love over passion, which might work if you make a convincing case that there are “soul mates” fated by destiny to be united, the music ideally underlining what’s so profound and mysterious about that. But Gounod’s score isn’t nearly as strong as in his most popular opera, “Faust,” and Jules Barbier and Michel Carre’s Wikipedia-entry libretto contains most of Shakespeare’s main plot points but eschews complexity and the bulk of the poetry, slowing and stretching only when it’s time for someone to die, because, well, that’s opera.
Yet those death scenes bring into sharper focus what’s missing in this production: A feeling of what’s at stake for these characters and what binds them together and drives them apart. Without that, the deaths feel relatively inconsequential. The scene in which Mercutio is killed by Tybalt who’s killed by Romeo should seem a major turning point in the story, but here it did little but make me mourn that we’d lost this production’s only good villain in David Walton’s Tybalt, a tightly coiled ball of restless anger.
Would that there were comparable fire in Joshua Dennis’ Romeo, but both he and Angela Mortellaro’s Juliet seem more like unassuming Midwestern farm kids than Italian aristocracy, he too self-effacing, she too superficial and breezy. That said, both have voices of depth and subtlety that lent impressive power to Gounod’s arias and duets, particularly Dennis’ expansively emotional solos. Also stealing scenes on opening night were Phillip Addis’ Mercutio and Gina Perregrino as Romeo’s page, Stephano.
William Boles’ set is built around some imaginative ideas, like big mood-ring roses that change colors with the scene and dozens of dangling swords of Damocles to telegraph impending danger. But Matthew Ozawa’s direction is too static, often clustering the chorus in clumps that bring another meaning to the stage term, “blocking,” and freezing the full cast in awkward silent tableaus that aren’t very visually interesting. Such moments allow you to admire Sarah Bahr’s relatively straight-up Elizabethan costuming and note the pale, waxy nature of much of the makeup.
Of all the things that Gounod and his librettists left on the cutting room floor, the most disappointing omission is what Shakespeare’s original had to say about the dire consequences of embracing hatred instead of love. It feels like that would be an important message to deliver in 2016, but neither love nor hate are palpable enough in this production to drive that point home.
IF YOU GO
What: Minnesota Opera’s “Romeo and Juliet”
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Ordway Music Theater, 345 Washington St., St. Paul
Tickets: $200-$25, available at 612-333-6669 or mnopera.org
Capsule: Some strong singing, but a paucity of passion.
