The Canadian Opera Company will present Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, bringing the romantic tragedy back to the company after a hiatus of more than three decades. UK-based Amy Lane directs, with tenor Stephen Costello and soprano Kseniia Proshina in the title roles.
The COC production, a rental from Malmö Opera, sets the feuding families in New York City during the Gilded Age, opening on New Year’s Eve 1889. The wealthy Capulet family have invited everyone who is anyone to a fabulous circus-themed party, where Capulet daughter Juliette meets Roméo.
Roméo, however, is part of the immigrant Montague family, enemies of the Capulets, and the two families are grappling over business, and who will dominate the darker side of the city.
It’s an intriguing set up for the classic tale of love, vengeance, and tragedy. The COC’s production takes the stage from September 27 to October 18.
We spoke to director Amy Lane about the opera.
Director Amy Lane
As a young singer, Amy Lane performed in the UK with The Royal Opera, English National Opera, British Youth Opera, and Opera Holland Park.
The native of London kick started her career behind the scenes in stage management, and worked for several years in productions in the city’s fabled West End. She joined The Royal Opera in 2005, and became involved in more than 25 productions. She has directed for both the stage and videos.
Her work has become known for its bold take on design, and use of projections. She adds a modern take to traditional opera repertoire.
The award-winning opera director has worked extensively with The Royal Opera House, Longborough Festival Opera, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, Opera North and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as internationally with companies such as Le Chatelet in Paris, Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen and the Bregenz Festival in Austria. Amy was the Head Staff Director at The Royal Opera Covent Garden for five years, and is the Artistic Director of the Copenhagen Opera Festival.
Toronto audiences are already familiar with her work. She took over the COC’s revival of Kasper Holten’s Don Giovianni in winter 2024, and directed the COC’s fall 2024 production of Faust.
Amy Lane: The Interview
“The theme is quite simple. It’s love, and love conquering all barriers, all divides,” Lane says of the opera.
She’s got a sympathetic view of the titular characters.
“They’re such tiny beings in this huge world of their parents.” The setting, New York City, helps to reinforce the idea of two people in a much bigger world. They’re caught up in a feud which has spun out of control.
“They are the catalysts,” she says. “They are change makers, unfortunately, only through their demise.”
The real tragedy is that change can only happen through such violent events, and their young ages and vulnerability are integral to the process.
“It takes youth to rid ourselves with what we’ve carried for so long,” Amy says. “It’s fascinating who says what, and who provokes.” Juliette is the one who brings the situation to a head. “She really pushes the story along.”
(Photo: © Jonas Persson)
The Setting
“We’ve set it very specifically on New Year’s Eve in 1889,” Lane explains. “Everybody makes promises on New Year’s Eve.”
It’s a moment of promise and potential.
“What interested us, was, of course, the feud between the families.”
As she points out, there are some differences between Gounod’s opera and the Shakespearean play many are familiar with.
“We don’t meet Lord Montague in the opera,” she notes. “We were interested in what this feud is, and what this feud can be.”
Putting immigration, and a clash between newcomers and established residents, may put a timely spin on the story now, but the same was also true during the so-called Gilded Age.
“It was really an interesting time,” Lane says. She notes there was a huge influx of Italian immigrants to the US during the period. “What happens if the Capulets are New Yorkers, and the Montagues are from Italy?”
Team Capulet has a huge presence in the city, whereas the Montagues are isolated, adding to the story’s tensions. Ditto the star-crossed couple, who are alone in their desire to be united.
“The tininess of Romeo and Juliet. If you can imaging two small souls growing up in a large city,” she says, “but they want to make change.”
(Photo: © Jonas Persson)
A Travelling Team
Opera and theatrical directors tend to work with the same creative team members over time. Lane’s frequent collaborators include set and costume designer Emma Ryott, lighting designer Charlie Morgan Jones, and others have been travelling and creating together for years.
“It’s a travelling team and a travelling family,” Lane says. “We have a wonderful language among us, but we also have a wonderful way of challenging each other.”
Lane says she begins the process of working on a production on her own.
“I will sit with a piece a good time by myself.”
Once she’s got some ideas to work with, she says she takes them to Emma Ryott, who will then both develop and challenge those initial thoughts.
“We begin to build a world together.” That’s aided by Emma’s library of reference books. Once the world of the production begins to take shape, the team expands to include a movement director, lighting designer, and others.
“We all come over here, and we spend two to three solid days going through every single beat and bar,” she says. “That’s right at the beginning of the process. It’s incredibly collaborative.”
It’s also a rewarding process when you’re working with the right people.
“I think Roméo et Juliette is our 25th production,” she says. Each addition to the team brings another element. “It’s never one person, one idea, one thought,” Lane adds. “A lot of the work of course seems hidden. [But] there is no opera that is existing without a stage management team.”
Lane praises the COC’s own resident backstage team. “And they are so essential to bringing our show to life,” she says. “We are so looking forward to returning and working with this company.”
Final Thoughts
It’s also, of course, about the music.
“I just think this opera score is one of the most beautiful,” Lane says. It will be the third time that she’s worked on the same production. “It will never, ever be exactly the same,” she says.
“That’s one of the best things about returning to a production.”
- Find tickets and performance information for the Canadian Opera Company’s Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, on stage from September 27 to October 18, 2025, [HERE].
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