Of course it’s an easy work to elude, however LA Opera has been a fairly strong proponent of this delicious French profiterole since they mounted their own production back in 2005 for Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon. (Remember them?) That was the same year they blew up the Salzburg Festival in Willy Decker’s La Traviata.  Joint appearances, recordings, and even a film (remember that Bohème?) started coming fast-on.

Then in 2007 we got them both in a brand new production of the Massenet Manon (in a “Hollywood” konzept that had La Netrebko appropriately got up as Marilyn Monroe) which traveled and was filmed elsewhere. Salzburg planned a Roméo for the two of them in 2008, hoping lightning would strike twice. Alas, it did not because Ms. Netrebko had to cancel as she was, as they say, in a state of expectation.

Her surprise replacement was the 25-year old Nino Machidze who went on to glory. She made her LA Opera debut the next year as Adina in L’elisir. Then in 2011 she was our Fiorilla in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia (Where was I for that?) and in that same season our Juliette for a Roméo revival opposite debutant Vittorio Grigolo.

So, LA Opera has had some very good luck with the Gounod and I’m predicting it will continue after Saturday night’s third revival of this spectacular production continues its run at the Dorothy Chandler.

We get the honor roll of the big donors on the supertitle screen as the orchestra warms up and it’s always interesting to see who’s generous. The last slide read, “LA Opera wishes to congratulate the Los Angeles Dodgers on winning the 2024 World Series” and the crowd literally went wild.

Needless to say ,we were all in a pretty good mood as our debuting conductor Domingo Hindoyan made his way into the pit. The lower strings weren’t ideally together for the short fughetta that opens the work but they righted themselves fairly quickly. From that point forward the LA Opera Orchestra gave a beautifully sensitive performance with Maestro Hindoyan keeping a close eye on his soloists. The recurring love theme was given just enough juice on its reappearances, not so much as to be sloppy but just enough to warm the heart and maybe mist the eyes a tad. Plus, there was plenty of vigor in the dances and especially in the big conflict that leads to the deaths of both Tybalt and Mercutio.

John Gunter designed the three-story scaffolding set with a lower colonnade. The largest piece covered the upstage and two movable towers stage left and right. Various drops, including a large mirror at the back, drapery, chandeliers, branches, all did well in conjuring the various — and many — scenes. Tim Goodchild’s magnificently detailed costumes evoked not the Italian Renaissance of Shakespeare, but the Risorgimento of Verdi and Gounod’s time. Beloveds, let me just say I’m a sucker for a hoop-skirt (They’re trickier than they appear) and all the ladies of the chorus moved beautifully. Gentlemen wore appropriately Victorian attire with the nobles in top hats and some sumptuous military uniforms.

The opera opened in the Capulet crypt with the chorus intoning Jules Barbier and Michel Carré’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s prologue. At its close there was a stunning coup de théâtre as suddenly the mourning cloaks of the chorus disappeared to reveal their party finery underneath as the waltz was struck up in the pit for the ball.

It’s a big show with full chorus and a large cast. Surprisingly we also got an almost uncut performance with Capulet’s couplet’s skillful rendering by Craig Colclough at the start. Even Stephano (a concoction of Gounod and his librettists) got his/her little Act III showpiece and mezzo Laura Krumm was charming here. Frankly, I think it was added because once Roméo and Juliette start singing, neither of them barely gets a moment to breathe for the entire evening. So they need a break.

Margaret Gawrysiak reveled in the nurse’s business and provided sympathetic support to her charge along with a motherly mezzo. Vinicius Costa as the Duke revealed a voice of real quality in his short scene that closed out the first half when he sends Roméo to exile. Now, I’m really looking forward to his Count Ceprano in our upcoming Rigoletto, another role that usually isn’t cast to this kind of strength.

Bass Wei Wu who was the booming Bonze in our recent Butterfly brought just the right amount of gravitas, to say nothing of low, low notes, to Frère Laurent. Justin Austin was a very suavely voiced Mercutio who seemed maybe a tad insecure in his big “La reine Mab” aria. It’s almost the whole role, so I can understand some nerves. My only minor disappointment was with Yuntong Han’s Tybalt. Perhaps due to an ill-fitting costume, he just failed to generate any threat in his role as the piece’s only real villain. He may improve as the run continues and he certainly sings well enough.

Now there are certain dreams we have as opera fans that we know are pretty much unattainable. This usually derives from our idealized fantasies about the physical suitability of a singer gifted with all the vocal requirements to fulfill the composer’s demands. Thus, we mostly settle for heroes and heroines who are supposed to be slim and in the golden spring of youth but appear better suited to playing linebacker on a professional football team. So having a Roméo and Juliette who credibly present as teenagers is a near operatic impossibility… unless you buy a ticket for LA Opera.

Tenor Duke Kim and Soprano Amina Edris are both within the first decade of their careers. Both have amassed a number of impressive credits and already have experience in these demanding roles. I cannot recall the last time I saw two singers more suited to each other on stage.

Mr. Kim has a sweet voice that loses none of its beauty as he ascends the scale. His French is very clean and may have been the best in the entire cast. He’s got the secret to the rolled ‘r’ (it’s rare). He’s also completely creditable, throwing his arms out wide and unfurling a high note of joy which is rarer still. He’s lithe, which is a good thing, since the staging barely allows him to use an available doorway, rather making him gambol up and down balconies and fences which he does with ease. He sang an absolutely lovely “Ah, leve-toi” with finesse and a very fine legato line. He is already, at this early stage, an artist.s

Ms. Edris’ Juliette was an equally beautiful creation. I’m sure I don’t know what was going through Mssr. Gounod’s mind when he composed Juliette’s first entrance. It’s the most wide-ranging, ungainly piece of vocal writing and does nothing but present an insurmountable challenge to the soprano singing it. Ms. Edris did better than most and then covered herself in glory with an “Ah! Je veux vivre”  that lacked nothing in charm and grace with the exception of a finished trill.

Juliette has two very tricky lines that are both underscored with the same musical theme. The first is at the finale of the first Act when she’s told of Roméo’s identity and it’s the French equivalent of, “My only love sprung from my only hate!” Later in Act IV, as she’s being led to marry Paris, it comes again at, “La haine est le berceau de cet amour fatal! Que le cercueil soit mon lit nuptial!” (Hatred is the cradle of this fatal love! Let the grave be my wedding-bed!) Shortly therein, the sleeping draught takes effect in front of the whole of Verona. She was utterly magnificent in both line readings.

She also rose to the challenge of Juliette’s potion air earlier in the same act, “Amour, ranime mon courage” which Gounod added for Adelina Patti when Roméo was finally moved from the Théâtre Lyrique to the Opéra in 1888. It’s a workout for any soprano and requires real finish and skill, which is why up until our own era most sopranos just skipped it. (I’m looking at you, Mirella.)

There were real thrills in all of their four (count ‘em, four) duets. I have to say that I think my most favorite moment came in the joyous trio/quartet that ends the marriage ceremony of the young lovers. Both of them reached a level of real ecstasy that was very visceral.

Director Kitty McNamee was given Ian Judge’s original playbook for the staging and she, having made her name primarily as a choreographer, can take credit for how smoothly everything moved through the many scenes of this drama. Although some of the jaded Angelinos in the audience tittered at some of the Victorian conventions in the staging, there’s really no way to avoid them and opera is about savoring the beauty of the melodrama. My only gripe is over the too long break for the set change before the final scene, but I can’t offer a workaround for that. Lighting by Duane Schuler was up to his usual standard of excellence and I’m sure it presented its own challenges because of the height and skeletal nature of the set.

However, the two most exciting moments of the evening were provided by Fight Director Andrew Kenneth Moss who gave us one of the best, most thoroughly choreographed brawls I have ever seen. He then managed to top his own work at the final calls by pulling his astonished girlfriend onstage, dropping to one knee, and presenting a ring, making this  the first time many of us have seen Romeo and Juliet end happily.  Five more performances remain through November 23rd so hie thee hence!

Photos: Cory Weaver