I Capuleti e i Montecchi;
Dido and Aeneas; Acis and Galatea
Royal Opera House
There has been a three-week gap between the opening and closing sets of performances of the latest revival of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Royal Opera. Smitten by migraine on the first night, I had to leave in the interval. Returning this week for the whole work provided me with an evening of almost unmitigated pleasure, even jouissance. One can quibble with some of the production, and the secondary singers are not great, but overall it makes for as intense an experience of Bellini’s early masterpiece as one could ever expect to see. And what strikes me each time I do see this work is that, as with Bellini’s other masterpieces or near-masterpieces, more and more of it comes to life.
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