Following on from Mary's thread about Opera North's "Midsummer Night's Dream" I thought I would open a slightly more general thread about the company's "Shakespeare Resounding" tour, which is currently at its final destination of Woking (though how they decided to go to somewhere so far from the North I have no idea).

I went to Romeo et Juliette last night and thought it generally well done and quite involving, though I had some issues with the vocal casting - Leonardo Capalbo's singing is somewhat graceless to my ears, and Bernarda Bobro's very pure youthful-sounding soprano is ideal for the characterisation but so teeny-tiny it's not at all satisfactory in either the ensembles or in her second aria, Dieu! quel frisson.

The performing edition used spoken dialogue in place of the recitatives - apparently Gounod's original intention - and was it my imagination or was there a choral number (Frappez l'air, chants joyeux) towards the end of Act 4 which I've never heard before?  Is it cut from the Covent Garden production?

Ah, and I used the word graceless earlier in this brief review.  The same could be said of the standard of the cast's French pronunciation (and I'm certainly no expert).  Generally a worthwhile evening though - and it would seem that Gounod doesn't sell in Surrey on a Tuesday evening, as they closed the upper circle.  The Royal Circle, to which I was upgraded, was only half full.

I'm off on Saturday for the double header - Midsummer Night's Dream matinee and Macbeth in the evening.