I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Of Thee I Sing
Opera North, Leeds
Slightly perversely, Opera North has been running a series of ‘Shakespeare operas’ ending with Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which means that the programme book consists largely of articles explaining that the story doesn’t derive from Shakespeare at all. So what? I am inclined to ask, but themed series are ‘in’, though why anyone seeing Falstaff a year ago might feel more like going to Bellini’s great work I don’t see.
The main thing is that Capuleti has indeed been done, and very finely. Musically it is virtually flawless and, if scenically it is wayward, the action is lucid and the central relationships powerfully and economically drawn. Leslie Travers’s sets suggest or embody collapse. No scenery for the first part aside from an askew glass chandelier, which shatters deafeningly.
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