Lakeside Little Theatre hosts the Met Live screening of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette Friday through Sunday, April 20 to 22, at 4 p.m.
Soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor Benjamin Bernheim come together as the star-crossed lovers in Charles Gounod’s Shakespeare adaptation, with Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct one of the repertoire’s most romantic scores. Staging by Bartlett Sher also features baritone Will Liverman and tenor Frederick Ballentine as the archrivals Mercutio and Tybalt, mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey as the mischievous pageboy Stéphano, and bass-baritone Alfred Walker as Frère Laurent.
Sher’s appealing 2016 production of “Roméo et Juliette” has returned to the house with a pair of singers in great form. The staging situates the action on a raised platform surrounded by stone facades and colonnades. Each scene from Shakespeare’s tragic romance—the ball, the balcony, the bedroom, the tomb—occurs more or less in a town square.
Despite the beautiful lighting and costumes, the production shows limited creative staging. But this becomes secondary when you have singers on the level of Nadine Sierra and Benjamin Bernheim in the title roles. For an opera steeped in ecstasy and fantasies of romantic bliss, Sierra and Bergheim are a dream at the revival’s performance. In the supporting roles, Frederick Ballentine was a fauning Tybalt, with a fresh and high-spirited voice. Will Liverman, as Mercutio, lit up his scenes with a richly textured baritone. The mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey brought a cool, dramatic edge to Stéphano.
Sung in French, Met titles in English. Digitally recorded and transmitted during the March 19 and March 23 performances as part of the Met’s Live in HD series of cinema transmissions. Timeline for the show is 3:10. Tickets available at lakesidelittletheatre.com or at the LLT box office.
Howard Willis