Canadian Opera Company: Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Amy Lane, director; COC Orchestra and Chorus, Yves Abel, conductor. Cast: Stephen Costello, Roméo; Kseniia Proshina, Juliette; Alex Hetherington, Stéphano; Gordon Bintner, Mercutio; Owen McCausland, Tybalt. October 8, 2025, Four Seasons Centre, Toronto. Continues to October 18; tickets here.
‘The light-minded Frenchman (…) who looks at every dramatic work first and foremost from the point of view of its outward effects.’
Tchaikovsky was excoriating Ambroise Thomas and his Hamlet opera. But, he might as well have been describing Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. which was composed a year or two earlier.
It would be nice to say that history has proved Tchaikovsky wrong — he could be an intolerant critic. But in fact, both operas share the same team of librettists — Jules Barbier and Michel Carré — and each is a stripped-down hackwork of a Shakespearean masterpiece.
As for the music, both are so over-sweetened they should come with a health warning. Finally, to Gounod’s generous sprinkling, Amy Lane’s staging, first presented in Malmö, adds a whole extra layer of baked meringue. Cliché after cliché in libretto, music, and staging makes this an enervating three-hour sugar fest.
The Production
In her notes, Lane, who was also in charge of Gounod’s much superior Faust at COC last year, explains her concept, whereby events are transported to New York of the 1880s.
The Montagues are Italian immigrants trying to settle, and the reason for their feud with the Capulets is money. Even had it worked, the idea would probably have added little insight or redemption. But in practice, little of it came across; some token early skyscrapers, perhaps overlooking Central Park, and a mafioso suit for Juliette’s father were more or less it.
The opening act is set as a cacophonic burlesque party. The chorus are in colourfully lavish costumes (designed by Emma Ryott), with clown-cum-harlequin dancers stage front. As in Lane’s Faust staging, there is no strong raison d’être for the dancers’ presence; nor is their choreography particularly interesting.
At times it feels like she is trying to distract us from the admittedly not terribly distinguished music — why exactly Count Capulet (a resonant if not quite vocally even Mark Stone) should strip to a corset and fishnets remained a mystery, though it does raise some faint titters.
Performances
Kseniia Proshina’s Juliette certainly looked the part, which is by no means always the case with operatic Juliettes. Vocally she is sweet-toned and delicate, but without the radiance that aficionados might expect from the single memorable tune of the opera, her Act 1 ‘Je veux vivre’.
Nor was she entirely helped by the awkward staging — placed at times on an elevated platform and backed by dancers making silly movements, even after her fake death. Stephen Costello’s Romeo, a good less plausible as a teenager, had the necessary power and stamina for Gounod’s high-tessitura writing, but scored less highly for tenderness.
By the third act, Lane seemed to have run out of ideas. But, she still managed to put Friar Laurence — a clergyman — in a laboratory coat, and to place a cabinet of potions centre-stage in the scene of the lovers’ secret wedding.
Meanwhile, most of the acting was as flat as the words were trite, at times even surpassing them for blandness. Romeo’s description of morning lights had no effect on the full moon that dominated each scene. A starrier cast, some fierier chemistry, and stronger direction might conceivably have saved the day.
But, the brief moment of pseudo-hallucination following Juliette’s imbibing was too confusing to make much impact.
Proshina and Costello were backed by a reliable supporting cast: Owen MacCausland’s Tybalt in particular impressed with his free-flowing tenor. Gordon Bintner’s Mercutio was larger-than-life, and Alex Halliday’s Duke brought a touch of superior vocal class, despite his role being so out of place in Lane’s staging that she found no better solution than having him stabbed to death.
The orchestra under the baton of Yves Abel took a while to settle at the performance I attended but offered plush colours and harmonies thereafter.
Final Thoughts
Roméo et Juliette had been absent from the Canadian Stage for over 30 years. I doubt whether many would be sad if it takes another 30 to return, unless COC can up its game and bring us a first-class production.
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