Roméo et Juliette
On 10 November 2024, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden will celebrate the premiere of Charles Gounod's opera Roméo et Juliette. Mariame Clément, who is working as a director at the Staatsoper for the first time, is bringing Shakespeare's world-famous love story back to the Unter den Linden stage after more than 100 years. She is collaborating with Julia Hansen, who designed the set and costumes. The Staatskapelle Berlin will perform in this production under the musical direction of Stefano Montanari, who is making his house debut.
Roméo et Juliette, first performed in 1867 as part of the Paris World Exhibition, is one of the most important works in the Romantic opera repertoire. Charles Gounod delicately traces the emotional lives of the eponymous lovers, for whom he composed four love duets. At the same time, he also gives space to the social context of their forbidden love in the form of powerful choral tableaux and a major family confrontation.
In this new production, Mariame Clément focuses on the youth of the title characters and shows them not as an exaggerated ideal type of couple, but rather as young people of today who rebel for their love against all odds. Instead of depicting a family feud, she thematises a generational conflict.
In her production, Mariame Clément assumes that the characters in the opera also have a background knowledge of Shakespeare's famous drama, which is deeply rooted in our cultural consciousness. ‘When we fall in love, we fall in love in a world in which Romeo and Juliet already exist.’ Through this perspective, she brings the play's conflicts closer to a contemporary audience and at the same time takes into account the differences in content between Gounod's opera and Shakespeare's original play.
The role of Juliette, one of the most demanding and lyrical soprano roles in the French repertoire, is sung by the multi-award-winning Elsa Dreisig, who was a member of the opera studio as a young artist, was subsequently engaged as an ensemble singer at the Staatsoper and has been in demand internationally ever since. Gounod's Juliette is one of her favourite roles, which she sang at the Opéra Bastille in Paris in 2023. Maria Kokareva from the International Opera Studio will take on this role in the performance on 13 November. At her side as Roméo, tenor Amitai Pati will be appearing at the Staatsoper for the first time.
Nicolas Testé also appears as Frère Laurent, Ema Nikolovska as Stéphano, Jaka Mihelač as Mercutio, Marina Prudenskaya as the nurse Gertrude and Johan Krogius as Tybalt. Other roles are sung by David Oštrek, Arttu Kataja, Dionysios Avgerinos, Andrés Moreno García and Manuel Winckhler. Rehearsed by Dani Juris, the State Opera Chorus sings alongside the soloists. Mathieu Guilhaumon is responsible for the choreography of the ballet, which will be staged as Juliette's Delirium, with Ran Arthur Braun acting as stunt coordinator. The lighting design is by Ulrik Gad and the video projections are by Sébastien Dupouey.
Premiere on Sunday, 10 November 2024 at 18:00 | Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Further performances on 13, 20, 22 and 24 November 2024, on 24 and 27 May and as part of ‘Staatsoper für alle’ on 21 June 2025.
The Staatsoper would like to thank the Friends and Sponsors of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and its main partners BMW and the Hilti Foundation for their support.