Performance Dates
Romeo and Juliet at the Prague State Opera is an eagerly anticipated production.Tickets are available to book now for: 19,25,26,31 October 2024;
02 November 2024;
08,09,11,14,21,22 January 2025 Tickets always sell out, so we advise booking early. ---------------------------------------------------------
Performance Details
The ballet Romeo and Juliet enjoys a long tradition of appearing in the repertoire of the Prague State Opera.This latest version has been created in the spirit of Neo-Classical dance aesthetics, to which Czech creators and audiences love to return
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In his youth, the French composer Charles Gounod (1818-1893) said that "one can only make a successful musical career by composing operas". Of the 13 operas he wrote, two went on to gain global recognition: Faust and Roméo et Juliette. Since its premiere at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on 27th April 1867, Gounod’s setting of the immortal story of the Verona lovers has enjoyed ever-increasing popularity.The librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré did not draw upon Shakespeare’s feted tragedy directly but its French adaptation by the poet Gérard de Nerval. Hence, the action also contains a few situations not found in Shakespeare’s play, for instance, Juliette’s aria "Ah! Je veux vivre", which Gounod additionally composed upon the request of the French soprano Marie Miolan-Carvalho (1827-1895), the first to portray the role. Romeo and Juliet was performed in Prague for the first time two years after its world premiere, with Bedřich Smetana conducting. Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet had its world premiere on 30th December 1938 at the National Theatre in Brno in Czechia. Act I begins: Verona - 14th century.
At a masked ball at the Capulet palace, Juliette’s arrival is eagerly awaited by her cousin Tybalt and her suitor Paris. Capulet presents his daughter, the revellers exclaim at her beauty, and Juliette rhapsodizes on her joy. The host leads his guests off just as Roméo, a Montague, and his friends, all masked, steal into the ballroom intent on provoking a fight. Roméo has dreamed the night before, and Mercutio, one of his companions, launches into a song about Queen Mab, the mistress of dreams. Suddenly Roméo sees Juliette at a distance. As she waltzes around the room, singing of the freedom of youth, Roméo shyly approaches her, asking if his hand may touch hers. Tybalt returns just as Juliette tells her name to Roméo, who masks himself and rushes off. Tybalt identifies the intruder as Montague’s son, but Capulet restrains him, ordering the party to continue… |
