Organization

Conductor

Conductor (+1)

Andriy Yurkevych

Stage director

Stage director (+1)

Sláva Daubnerová

Set designer

Juraj Kuchárek

Costume designer

Martin Kotúček

Choreographer

Stanislava Vlčeková

Lighting designer

Lighting designer (+2)

Daniel Tesař

Video

Lukáš Kodoň

Chorusmaster

Adolf Melichar

Dramaturge

Jitka Slavíková

Soprano (+1)

Jana Sibera

Juliet

Tenor (+3)

Petr Nekoranec

Romeo

Bass (+3)

Roman Vocel

Friar Laurent

Baritone (+3)

Lukáš Bařák

Mercutio

Mezzo-soprano (+3)

Arnheiður Eiríksdóttir

Stephano

Tenor (+4)

Daniel Matoušek

Tybalt

Mezzo-soprano (+2)

Sylva Čmugrová

Gertrude

Bass-baritone (+3)

Miloš Horák

Count Capulet

Martin Matoušek

Gregory

Tenor (+5)

Jan Ondráček

Benvolio

Ivo Hrachovec

The Duke

Chorus

State Opera Chorus Prague

Orchestra

State Opera Orchestra Prague

Ballet

National Theatre Narodni Opera Ballet

Prague National Theatre Chorus

Prague National Opera Orchestra

The Czech National Ballet

Tenor (+2)

Benjamín Hájek

Paris

Michael Skalický

National Theatre Prague

Státní Opera Praha (The State Opera)

Bass (+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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