Gounod: Roméo et Juliette

Andrea Bocelli, the award-winning tenor and international “cross-over” superstar, returns to his first love – grand opera – with a starring role in one of the grandest operatic love stories of all.

Adapting Shakespeare’s immortal tale of young love blighted by family feuds, Gounod’s gloriously lyrical Roméo et Juliette stands alongside the composer’s earlier Faust as one of the supreme romantic masterpieces of 19th-century French opera.

In a score that boasts a remarkable succession of tender, sensual and ultimately tragic duets for its two “star- cross’d lovers”, Andrea Bocelli’s Romeo is partnered by the young Spanish soprano Maite Alberola as Juliet.

Recorded live at the Teatro Carlo Felice’s lavish new production, this new

recording of Gounod’s opera is conducted by top opera maestro Fabio

Luisi, recently appointed to the prestige position of Principal Conductor at the world’s No. 1 opera house, the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

With Andrea Bocelli leading the cast, this new recording of Roméo et Juliette should not only win over the hearts and minds of his millions of fans, but also attract a whole new audience to a new recording of a wonderful but relatively neglected score.

A DVD of this production will be released in November.

Set design EDOARDO SANCHI

Costumes SILVIA AYMONINO

Choreography NIKOS LAGOUSAKOS

Lighting PAOLO MAZZON

Here from the iconic Verona arena is Charles Gounod’s masterpiece Roméo & Juliette, performed there for the first time since 1977. This new production was entrusted to Italian director Francesco Micheli, making his arena debut, who opted for a personal, highly original version: “An arena within the Arena, like a blood-red Elizabethan theatre. A senescent world that will not let its own children live.”

Juliette is sung by Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze, in a return to one of her early roles at the Salzburg Festival. Stefano Secco, often heard at the Opéra Bastille in Paris and other international venues, is Roméo. Artur Rucinski interprets Mercutio, Romeo’s friend and the rival of Jean-François Borras’s Tybalt. The page Stéphano is sung by soprano Ketevan Kemoklidze. The Orchestra and Chorus of the Arena di Verona are conducted by Fabio Mastrangelo.

Alain Vanzo (1928-2002) was one of the few French tenors of international standing in the postwar era. He, along with such singers as Henri Legay and the Canadian Léopold Simoneau, represented a traditional French lyric style during a period when larger Italian and German vocal styles had become popular.

He also sang the Italian repertory, winning great acclaim at the Palais Garnier in 1960, as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, opposite Joan Sutherland who was making her debut there. This was the beginning of his international career, appearing at many of the major opera houses in Europe and America. He sang at Carnegie Hall, as Gennaro, in the famous 1965 concert version of Lucrezia Borgia, opposite Montserrat Caballé.

As the years went by, Vanzo extended his repertory to more dramatic roles and became internationally renowned as one of best exponent of the roles of Benvenuto Cellini and Werther. Vanzo never officially retired, singing well into his 60s, mostly in recital, and appearing frequently on French television. He left relatively few commercial recordings, the most famous being Lakmé, opposite Joan Sutherland, conducted by Richard Bonynge.

Excellent Sound. Bonus: excerpts with Janine Micheau, Georges Noré / Jules Gressier, Paris 1953

Recording Date: February 1, 1947