Organization

Dirigent

Dirigent (+1)

Andriy Yurkevych

Regisseur

Regisseur (+1)

Sláva Daubnerová

Set designer

Juraj Kuchárek

Kostuum ontwerper

Martin Kotúček

Choreograaf

Stanislava Vlčeková

Licht ontwerper

Licht ontwerper (+2)

Daniel Tesař

Video

Lukáš Kodoň

Koor meester

Adolf Melichar

Dramaturg

Jitka Slavíková

Sopraan (+1)

Jana Sibera

Juliette

Tenor (+3)

Petr Nekoranec

Roméo

Bas (+3)

Roman Vocel

Frère Laurent

Bariton (+3)

Lukáš Bařák

Mercutio

Mezzosopraan (+3)

Arnheiður Eiríksdóttir

Stéphano

Tenor (+4)

Daniel Matoušek

Tybalt

Mezzosopraan (+2)

Sylva Čmugrová

Gertrude

Bas-bariton (+3)

Miloš Horák

Comte Capulet

Martin Matoušek

Grégorio

Tenor (+5)

Jan Ondráček

Benvolio

Ivo Hrachovec

Le Duc

Chorus

State Opera Chorus

Orchestra

State Opera Orchestra

Ballet

National Theatre Narodni Opera Ballet

Prague National Theatre Chorus

Het Nationale Theater

National Theatre Opera Ballet Prague

Tenor (+2)

Benjamín Hájek

Pâris

Michael Skalický

National Theatre Prague

Státní Opera Praha (The State Opera)

Bas (+2)

Giorgi Chelidze

Richard Hein

In his youth, the French composer Charles Gounod (1818–1893) said that “one can only make a successful music career by composing operas”. Of the 13 operas he wrote, two went on to gain global recognition: Faust and Roméo et Juliette. Based on feted literary works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and William Shakespeare, respectively, both of them centre around a love story, with the major role being played by melodies. For more than 150 years, Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet have pined for each other, sung and died on stages all over the world. Why does the opera have such perennial appeal? The answer is simple: splendid solos and four mesmerising duets of the two protagonists, Mercutio’s elegant Ballad of Queen Mab, engrossing ensembles, including the lament on the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt, a colourful and highly emotional atmosphere.

Owing to Bedřich Smetana, a great champion of Gounod’s music, Roméo et Juliette got to Prague merely two years after its world premiere in Paris, and its Czech staging at the New Town Theatre on 29 August 1869, with Smetana conducting, was the very first in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Estates Theatre presented Gounod’s opera on 11 September 1873, in German translation, followed by the National Theatre on 6 January 1886, in Czech, and the Neues deutches Theater (today’s State Opera), again in German, on 20 October 1889. Our current production was created by the Slovak director and performance artist Sláva Daubnerová, with the music explored by the renowned Italian conductor Marco Guidarini.

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