So is the transformation of the Montecchi attack on the Capuleti into a slow-motion brawl in the latter’s dingy, linoleum-floored bar, even if Romeo’s attempt to crash Giulietta’s wedding in “disguise” – swapping slimline burgundy tailoring for an oversized pinstriped number – stretched the production’s internal rules about visual realism.
Eloise Lally’s Little Italy take on Bellini’s Romeo and Juliet opera has, in Samantha Price and Jessica Cale, strong and powerful leads.
Produced in six weeks to plug a gap in the roster at Venice’s La Fenice after another composer failed to deliver, this opera-against-the-odds has never matched the popularity of Bellini’s La Sonnambula or Norma.
No such problem with Samantha Price or Jessica Cale as the star-cross’d lovers: the chemistry they alas lacked physically – why not do more with a trouser-role Romeo in 1950s NYC?
Staging Romeo’s conference with the Capuleti (the production is sung in Italian) as a call via a gangster hotline is genuinely effective.
